The aim of this paper is to bring the challenge of an information perspective to bear on development issues and in particular on the role of telecommunications. In a too quiet revolution, information economics has lagged in the race for popular interest behind the brash ‘new economy’ rhetoric which argues that the intellectual problem is one of catching up with a new technology economy, i.e. a CISCO online economy that can exist miraculously and independently of supporting non-online activities, institutions and culture, rather than coping with the deeper socioeconomic issues that have long been eroding the theoretical foundations of economic theory, its touchstone of economic efficiency, and myriad policy prescriptions.