This book emerges in a moment of changing connectivity at the world’s economic margins. In Manila, Manchester, Mogadishu, the banlieues of Marseille, and everywhere in between, the world is becoming digital, digitized, and digitally mediated at an astonishing pace. Most of the world’s wealthy have long been digitally connected, but the world’s poor and economically marginal have not been enrolled in digital networks until relatively recently. In only five years (2012–2017), over one billion people became new Internet users (ITU 2016). In 2017, Internet users became a majority of the world’s population. The networking of humanity is thus no longer confined to a few economically prosperous parts of the world. For the first time in history, we are creating a truly global and accessible communication network.

这本书是在世界经济边缘的互联互通不断变化的时刻出版的。在马尼拉、曼彻斯特、摩加迪沙、马赛的郊区以及其间的任何地方，世界正以惊人的速度数字化、数字化和数字化。长期以来，世界上大多数富人都通过数字连接，但世界上的穷人和经济上处于边缘地位的人直到最近才加入数字网络。仅仅五年（2012-2017年），就有超过10亿人成为新的互联网用户（ITU 2016）。2017年，互联网用户成为世界人口的大多数。因此，人类网络不再局限于世界上少数经济繁荣的地区。这是历史上第一次，我们正在建立一个真正的全球性和可访问的通信网络。