divides profile

- North America

- EU

- Australia

- Asia

- Third World

     overview

This profile, supplementing the discussion in the 'Digital Divides' page of the Metrics & Statistics guide and the Community page in the Digital guide, is under construction. We've highlighted overarching initiatives and information sources on this page. The following pages deal with particular initiatives in the advanced, developing and emerging economies.

     global initiatives

In 2000 the G8+1 nations and Organisation of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) announced the establishment of a Digital Opportunity Task Force or Dotforce (DOT), using funds from the World Bank and United Nations Development Program to "eliminate the digital divide". We're reporting on its activity in Analysphere; so far it's squabbling about its terms of reference.

The glitzier Digital Divide Task Force (DDTF) is an initiative of the World Economic Forum, essentially advising that big business group. Its report notes that "at our Annual Meeting 2001 in Davos, we shared these stories and reviewed our action-oriented work programme with the same group of top executives that launched the Initiative". Action-oriented it might be, but the Force has so far produced few results, as might be expected from a perusal of Lewis Lapham's tart The Agony of Mammon: The Imperial Global Economy Explains Itself to the Membership In Davos, Switzerland (London, Verso 98).

The UN Task Force on Information Technologies (18 representatives of member states, eight private sector representatives, four representatives from the non-profit sector and six representatives from the UN system) has yet to get off the ground. It's largely a response to the Dotforce.

Technology Pioneers (TEN), another offshoot of the World Economic Forum, serves as a 'business angel' for the development sector organisations. Several organisations for individuals have sprung up. These include Canada's NetCorps, TechCorps (TC) and VolunteerMatch (VMatch).

The October 2000 Digital Dividend (DD) conference in Seattle, under the auspices of Washington think tank the World Resources Institute (WRI), was marketed as "transforming sustainable development through digital technology". It's independent of the somewhat more Digital Divide partnership (DDO) associated with William Gates Sr.

     gateways

The South Africa-base Bridges.org is an international, nonprofit organization concerned with appropriate use of information and communications technology in developing and emerging countries.

The World Bank's Development Gateway offers a range of pointers to development resources.

     journals

One valuable source about developments within Asia is the Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC).

     statistics

For global statistical reports refer to the Divides page of the Metrics & Statistics guide on this site. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has published a number of 'internet access' papers and case studies.


   next page (North America)