Economic development in the industrially advanced societies of the West invariably has been accompanied by a structural shift of labor from the primary and secondary production sectors to the tertiary service sector. A systematic analysis of the service sector shows that the commodity on which this sector acts is information. The growing importance of information for control and management in a developed society is the primary reason for the structural shift of labor to the service sector. A professionalized service sector constitutes the critical backbone of a developing society, and information technology is the underpinning of this sector. The development and application of information technology for use by professionals and paraprofessionals are necessary to extend the scope and improve the standards of functionally available services in a society. Information technology in this sense is an appropriate technology for socioeconomic development in the countries of the Third World.