Metrics guide
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the
digital divide in
Australia
The
statistics highlighted on the demographics page
of the Metrics guide suggest that around 67% of Australian
households are not connected to the net (the apparent discrepancy
in NOIE and other figures reflects access via work) and that
users are young, male, earning in excess of $75,000, employed,
and living in metropolitan areas.
Those on low incomes, without tertiary
education, living in rural/remote areas, of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander heritage, with disabilities, with a language background
other than English, and aged over 55 are less likely to be online. Why?
Barriers to online access include set-up and access costs, lack of physical
access, disinterest/confidence or perceptions of irrelevance, security
concerns, lack of skills/training and illiteracy.
initiatives
As noted earlier in this guide, the
2000 'NATSEM' report
for Telstra on Sociodemographic Barriers to Telecommunications Use
argues that the Australian 'digital divide' is one of income and social
situation, not geography - questioning the government's concern with
supply to rural areas.
The report builds on the Access to electronic
commerce and new service and information technologies for older
Australians and people with a disability report
by the Australian Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission and
the landmark 1999 report
(PDF) on Web Sites for Rural Australia: Designing for Accessibility by
the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation (RIRDC).
The latter highlighted issues relating to regional use of the web,
including uncertain (and expensive connections), slow download times and
older machines or browsers.
NATSEM's significant because it
highlights the divide within metropolitan and regional Australia, in
contrast to federal government initiatives focussed on 'the bush' (and
Tasmania).
The Digital Divide page of the National Office for the
Information Economy makes interesting reading, highlighting
regulatory initiatives to encourage greater competition
in the telecommunications market; grants programs to fund
the development of telecommunications infrastructure,
community access facilities and training; a range of educational
skills development initiatives; and providing government
services electronically in ways that enable access for
all sectors of the community, including the disabled
in line with the January 1999 Strategic
Framework for the Information Economy (StratF).
At the national level those initiatives include:
-
the Networking the Nation (NTN)
program and associated Social
Bonus programs such as the
New Connections Toolkit,
with $592 m from Telstra's sale to upgrade regional, rural
and remote telecommunications
- a
5-year, $70 million
rural transaction centre program of
the Dept of Transport & Regional Services to help
small, rural communities establish 'community access centres'
as gateways to basic services such as banking, post, phone,
fax, the net, Medicare and of course Centrelink.
- an
Education & Training Action Plan for the Information
Economy with
funding of up to $5 million for an Information Technology
& Telecommunications (IT&T) Skills Exchange and
a Computers for Schools initiative through which
"surplus Commonwealth and State government computers
are donated to government and non-government schools ....
To date, approximately 18 000 computers have found their
way to deserving schools." Undeserving ones buy their
own?
- the
Government Online Strategy,
a whole-of-government approach for wiring the federal
bureaucracy, reflects the Prime Minister’s commitment
that the Commonwealth will bring all appropriate services
online via the Internet by 2001
NOIE's
October 2000 E-Commerce Across Australia report,
arguing that e-commerce will neutralise the tyranny of distance
and place us all on a level footing in the global marketplace,
is problematical but does offer a detailed analysis of the
potential impacts on regional Australia.
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