Digital divide.
The digital divide is referring to people that have access to digital technology and those who don’t .
The term digital divide refers to the gap between those with regular, effective access to digital and information technology, and those without this access. It encompasses both physical access to technology hardware and, more broadly, skills and resources which allow for its use. Groups often discussed in the context of a digital divide include socioeconomic (rich/poor), racial (white/minority), or geographical (urban/rural). The term global digital divide refers to differences in technology access between countries.
Essentially, this means the divide between those who have access to digital technology and those who do not. The divide takes in to account wealth, ethnicity and the area of those in the divide
Origins of the Term
The term came into regular usage in the mid-1990s.
The term initially referred to gaps in ownership of computers between groups. One area of significant focus was school computer access; in the 1990s, rich schools were much more likely to provide their students with regular computer access. In the late 1990s, rich schools were much more likely to have internet access.
The e - rate program (officially the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund), authorized in 1996 and implemented in 1997, directly addressed the technology gap between rich and poor schools by allocating money from telecommunications taxes to poor schools without technology resources. Though the program faced criticism and controversy in its methods of disbursement, it did provide over 100,000 schools with additional computing resources, and internet connectivity.
Recently, discussions of a digital divide in school access have broadened to include technology related skills and training in addition to basic access to computers and internet access.
Current Usage
Due to the range of criteria which can be used to assess technology access, and the lack of detailed data on some aspects of technology usage, the exact nature of the digital divide is both contextual and debatable. Criteria that are often used to distinguish between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' of the digital divide tend to focus on access to hardware, access to the internet, and details relating to these categories. In the context of schools, which have consistently been involved in the discussion of the divide, current formulations of the divide focus more on how (and whether) computers are used by students, and less on whether there are computers or internet connections.
Global Digital Divide
Another key dimension of the Digital Divide is the global digital divide, reflecting existing economic divisions in the world. This global digital divide widens the gap in economic divisions around the world. Countries with a wide availability of internet access can advance the economics of that country on a local and global scale. In today's society, jobs and education are directly related to the internet. In countries where the internet and other technologies are not accessible, education is suffering, and uneducated people cannot compete in our global economy. This leads to poor countries suffering greater economic downfall and richer countries advancing their education and economy. The digital divide is a term used to refer to the gap between people who have access to the internet and those that do not. It can also refer to the skills people have – the divide between peoples who are at ease using technology to access and analyse information and those who are not.
Digital divide in the context of e-democracy
The theoretical concepts of e-democracy are still in early development, but in practice 'blogs (web logs), wikis and mailing lists are having significant effects in broadening the way democracy operates. There is, as yet, no consensus among scholars about the possible outcomes of this revolution. One of the main problems associated with the digital divide as applied to a liberal democracy is the capacity to participate in e-government - in the extreme case, exclusively computer-based democratic participation (deliberation forums, online voting, etc) would mean that no access meant no vote. Therefore, there is a risk that some social groups will be under-represented (or others over-represented) in the policy formation processes and this would be incompatible with the equality principles of democracy.
National interest and social benefit
There are a variety of arguments about why closing the digital divide is important. The major arguments are as follows:
Economic equality: Some think that access to the Internet is a basic component of civil life that some developed countries aim to guarantee for their citizens. Telephone service is often considered important for the reasons of security. Health, criminal, and other types of emergencies may indeed be handled better if the person in trouble has access to a telephone. Also important seems to be the fact that much vital information for education, career, civic life, safety, etc. is increasingly provided via the Internet, especially on the web. Even social welfare services are sometimes administered and offered electronically.
Social mobility: If computers and computer networks play an increasingly important role in continued learning and career advancement, then education should integrate technology in a meaningful way to better prepare students. Without such offerings, the existing digital divide disfavors children of lower socio-economic status, particularly in light of research showing that schools serving these students in the USA usually utilize technology for remediation and skills drilling due to poor performance on standardized tests rather than for more imaginative and educationally demanding applications.
Social equality: As education integrates technology, societies such as in the developing world should also integrate technology to improve life. This will reduce the gender inequalities. Access to information through internet and other communication tools will improve her life chances and enable her to compete globally with her Contemporaries even in the comfort of her rural settings.
Democracy: Use of the Internet has implications for democracy. This varies from simple abilities to search and access government information to more ambitious visions of increased public participation in elections and decision making processes. Direct participation (Athenian democracy) is sometimes referred to in this context as a model.
Economic competitiveness and growth: The development of information infrastructure and active use of it is inextricably linked to economic growth. Information technologies in general tend to be associated with productivity improvements even though this can be debatable in some circumstances. The exploitation of the latest technologies is widely believed to be a source of competitive advantage and the technology industries themselves provide economic benefits to the usually highly educated populations that support them. The broad goal of developing the information economy involves some form of policies addressing the digital divide in many countries with an increasingly greater portion of the domestic labor force working in information industries.
National Security: It has been speculated that the Digital Divide leaves those most susceptible to terrorism with no other options. Because they are being left behind, they rebel against modern society through acts of terrorism (www.digitaldivide.org
Overcoming the Digital Divide
Many devotees of the Open content, free software, and Open access movements believe that these movements help equalize access to digital tools and information. Projects like One Laptop per Child and 50x15 offer a partial solution to the global digital divide; these projects tend to rely heavily upon open standards and free open source software. Programmer and free software advocate Richard Stallman has highlighted the importance of[2] free software among groups concerned with the digital divide such as the World Summit on the Information Society. Additional participants in this endeavor include the United Nations Global Alliance for
ICT and Development (www.un-gaid.org) and the Digital Alliance Foundation .(Information found on wikipedia.org)
This is a map showing the divide of how many people have broadband in England :
The one laptop per child project was the idea that a cheap laptop computer would be given to children around the world on the other side of the digital divide, children withought internet access or even a computer.
Manufacturer Quanta Computers Type Subnotebook
Connectivity 802.11b/g /s wireless LAN
3 USB 2.0 ports
MMC/SD card slot Media
1 GB flash memory
Operating system Fedora-based (Linux)
Input KeyboardTouchpadMicrophoneCamera Camera built-in video camera (640×480; 30 FPS) Power NiMH or LiFePO4 battery removable pack
CPU AMD Geode LX700@0.8W + 5536 Memory 256 MB DRAM Display dual-mode 19.1 cm/7.5" diagonal TFT LCD 1200×900
This is the $100 laptop that is being mass produced to be given to children around the world on the other side of the digital divide.
These are the countries that will be participating in the project, Laptops will be sold to the governments and then the governments will distribute them through ministrys.
Argentina Brazil (not yet, is in study) [13] Cambodia Costa Rica Dominican Republic Egypt Greece Libya Nigeria Pakistan Peru Rwanda[14] Tunisia United States of America (specifically the states of Massachusetts and Maine) Uruguay . Pricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the US$100 mark in 2008. Approximately 500 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in summer 2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007; full-scale production is expected to start in mid-2007.[2] Quanta Computer, the project's contract manufacturer, said in February 2007 that it had confirmed orders for one million units. They indicated they could ship 5 million to 10 million units this year because seven nations have committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren, including Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay.[3] (wikipedia.org)
