The Information-Communication Technologies Develop ment in the Southern Federal District in the Process of the Russian Society Modernization (the case study of the Republic of Kalmykia)

Abstract

The case of the Republic of Kalmykia is discussed as part of the research of the information-communication technologies development in the Southern Federal District within the modernization processes in the Russian society. Information-communication technologies have become an integral part of any sphere of human activities in the modern world. Since 2000s, they have been introduced to the work of all the ministries and departments of the Republic of Kalmykia as well as in all the other regions of the Russian Federation. The author distinguishes the three main trends of the information-communication technologies development in Kalmykia. They are 1) computerizing the republic as a starting point in developing the computer-aided informational technologies; 2) developing the telecommunication nets; 3) advancing the information technologies. It is pointed out that all these processes are interrelated and precede each other becoming a point of departure for the next stage. Some dispersion or “digital gap” existing in the development of informatization and computerization in the Center and in the Russian Federation subjects is obvious, however, in the last decades the Russian regions including Kalmykia have actively been participating in these processes considering them to be the key and priority principles and means for their progress. The analysis of the data from the first decade covering the period of active inclusion of the Southern regions of Russia into the information-communication field provides with quite extensive material to reveal the dynamics of indicators, tendencies and patterns characteristic of this process. Within the period under consideration, foundations for telecommunication nets development were laid, the local community became aware of the necessity to introduce information technologies as a means for increasing efficiency and competitiveness of business and a way for spreading, rotating and popularizing knowledge. First gradually, then intensively information technologies were adopted in management as well as in scientifi c and educational activities. The tendency toward increase in the number of computers connected to the Internet and web-sites created became obvious. In each house there is a computer which becomes an integral part of people’s everyday life - to some extend this fact can be considered as an indicator of improvement of the local population’s standard and quality of life. At the same time, there were a lot to be done for the republic to achieve all-Russia indicators and those of the neighbouring regions as in a number of parameters Kalmykia was behind some adjacent territories.