Advanced Information Society

Introduction

“Which is the most advanced information society?” The answer to this question can be more than one. It depends on the criteria one chooses to define it with. And the understanding of what an information society is. As a term “information society” was first published in a title in 1964 in Japan. But it was used in 1961 before that in a conversation between Kisho Kurokawa and Tudao Umesao (Karvalics, 2007). In this text a comparison between three countries will be made: Netherlands, Belgium and Bulgaria. This will be made by using Carlota Perez’s theory. The reason to choose this theory is that the inventions and the innovations are one of the most important driving forces that shape our lives. The information society is a term which

The first technological revolution was the Industrial Revolution from 1771 with the uprising of the textile production and the construction of channels. It’s core country was Britain, wherefrom it later on in the second wave spread to the main land of Europe One of the most important inventions that came out of this revolution were the machinery. The invention of machinery made it possible to work faster and more cost efficient. It set the pace for other industries and gave a whole universe of possibilities, not only in different work sectors, but also in the daily lives of regular

The Capital region has a high productivity level, a highly skilled population and an extensive University knowledge base, but shows a less favorable performance in terms of expenditure, the investments in R&D and entrepreneurship. A striking trend in Brussels is the almost doubling of the economic importance of the high-tech services between 1995 and 2002 and the quasi stagnation of the R&D investments. Because of the fact that the Capitol region is so unique and complex, makes it also more difficult to compare it with European regions and countries. When looking at the studied indicators, we can state that the Flemish region scores pretty good compared to the other European countries. The Flanders is characterized by a high R&D intensity in the enterprises, a population with a high level of training, a strong productivity growth and an important representation of the High Tech - and Medium High Tech industry. The increase in R&D investments and the public funding is the most obvious proof of the efforts made by the Flemish region. However, there are also less strong points that eventually can slow down the development of economic activities. For example: the participation in lifelong learning, the evolution of the patent activity, the representation of the high-tech industries and the entrepreneurship are seen as less positive in comparison