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The UK’s relationship with technology is a peculiar one. On the one hand we have high rates of broadband penetration – yet on the other a mindset that technology is the realm of tank-top wearing geeks who do things that ‘normal’ people do not.

As a nation, we’re comfortable being ‘spectators’ on the web – a term used by Forrester Research, a technology research company, for people who consume information online. However, the level of active participation is low compared to other countries. Why is this? What are we afraid of and why is it that each wave of technological innovation is met with scathing cynicism?

I remember in the early days of affordable mobile phone technology the people who proudly rejected mobiles because they were crass and un-British. There was a fear that people could be contacted at all hours as if this were a wholly bad thing. It took some years before we all became addicted to the phone and realised that being disconnected was a far bigger problem.

Then there was the internet. Some people, predominantly in mature, established industries, buried their heads in the sand claiming that it would never catch on and that its significance was overstated. But, over time and buffeted by the push and pull of the marketplace and threats from younger enterprises who provided better and cheaper services, these firms increased their investment into web technology.

On the other side of the globe, people in countries such as South Korea, Japan and metropolitan China are finding it much easier to embrace the technology. Forrester Research’s analysis suggests that people in these countries are more likely to create, engage and interact with the web. This will give them an advantage in utilising the web for business.

The smart and well informed are already utilising this technology to great success. Don Tapscott in his book, Wikinomics, illustrates many examples of how the web is used to find solutions that companies cannot find internally. One example shows how the owner of a gold mining company eschewed his own team in favour of an online competition to find his most productive mines. He published all of his sensitive and secret geological research and data on the web and offered a percentage of his revenue to anyone who could source the richest mines. Responses came from people with various backgrounds – chemists, mathematicians, military officers and geologists to name but a few. The different approaches were an eye-opener for the owner and the company was turned from the brink of bankruptcy into a multi-billion dollar business.

The technology sector is not immune to the challenges ahead either. The competition for jobs will increase as digital technology makes it easier to send information and the web provides the basis for a global marketplace.

Take for example the phenomenon of e-lancing which is making outsourcing even easier. Firms use e-lancing websites to effectively auction their work to a global pool of workers. As with most auctions price will be a significant factor and it will be difficult for UK e-lancers to compete. At the same time firms may benefit from cheaper costs but they need to have an understanding of how the web can be used to their advantage.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Last week – Britain had 29 universities ranked in a league table of the top 200 universities in the world. The UK produces people and companies that can rank with the best in the world – but as long as the mainstream considers it cool to be a technophobe and nerdy if you write a blog or use social media, we will fall further behind our competitors.

The internet revolution is here – what we need now is a cultural revolution.

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Parminder Bahra is the Executive Editor of Times Online