The Societal Value of ICT: First Steps Towards an Evaluation Framework

The impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on organisations has been widely discussed in the literature. Its impact on individuals has been less extensively studied, but much good work has still been undertaken. In contrast, the impact of ICT on society as a whole has, as yet, to be examined in any detail in the academic literature. This may be because the question is highly problematic, posing many difficult conceptual and practical questions. This paper is an initial and tentative look at this issue. Starting from a discussion of what constitutes ‘the information society’, the paper uses concepts from the balanced scorecard as a potential framework for exploring the question of the societal value of ICT and proposes a number of costs and benefits that might be components of such an analysis.