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the digital divide
This page considers the 'digital
divide' (or divides): reports, responses, organisations.
the divide
The notion of the digital divide -
information rich v information poor, those with skill sets and big pipes
v those with few skills and infrastructure with the performance
characteristics of jam tins & string - is profoundly important.
Alas, it is proving increasingly elastic as 'digital divide'
becomes a mantra to
justify a range of practical initiatives and digital pork barrelling.
The statistics highlighted on the
demographics page of this 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.
books and studies
Apart from reports noted earlier in
this guide, the divide's attracted increasing academic and community
attention.
Herbert Schiller's Information Inequality: The Deepening
Social Crisis In America (London, Routledge 96) and Information
& The Crisis Economy (New York, Oxford Uni Press 86) and William Wresch's Disconnected: Haves
& Have-Nots in the Information Age (New Brunswick, Rutgers Uni
Press 98) offer a perspective
from the left.
There are useful essays in Public Access To The
Internet (Cambridge, MIT Press 95), a volume edited by Brian Kahin
& James Keller as part of the Harvard Information Infrastructure
Project, and in Cyberspace Divide: Equality, Agency & Policy In
The Information Society (London, Routledge 98) edited by Brian
Loader.
Competition In Telecommunications (Cambridge,
MIT Press 00) by Jean-Jacques Laffont &
Jean Tirole and Milton Mueller's Universal Service: Interconnection,
Competition & Monopoly in the Making of the American
Telephone System. (Cambridge, MIT Press 96) examine universal service regimes.
High Technology & Low-Income
Communities: Prospects For The Positive Use Of Advanced Information
Technology (Cambridge, MIT Press 99), a collection of essays edited
by Donal Schoen, Bish Sanyal & William Mitchell, and Cutting
Edge: Technology, Information, Capitalism & Social Revolution
(London, Verso 97) edited by Jim Davis, Thomas Hirschl & Michael
Stack are other views from the left. Erik Brynjolfsson's 1995 paper
on Communications Networks & the Rise of an
Information Elite: Do Computers Help the Rich get Richer? (PDF)
is a detailed study by the eminent MIT economist.
Manuel Castells' The Informational City: Information
Technology, Economic Restructuring & the
Urban-Regional Process (Oxford, Blackwell 89)
highlighted the significance of divides within cities -
most people, after all, don't live in the bush. In the US
the Urban Research Initiative on information technology and the future of the urban
environment is producing a series of excellent research reports
and maps.
Paulina Borsook's Cyberselfish:
A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech (New
York, PublicAffairs 99) offers insights into the technolibertarian 'let
them eat cake' approach: just throw enough PCs and broadband at any
problem and it will go away.
The October 2000 London Business School paper (PDF)
by Hammond, Turner & Bain on Internet Users versus
Non-Internet Users: Drivers of Internet Uptake is
suggestive, as is The Evolution of the Digital Divide:
How Gaps in Internet Access May Impact Electronic Commerce,
a cogent 2000 paper by Donna
Hoffman & Thomas Novak.
regional/national
studies
Government, business and other groups have produced a
wide range of studies on particular divides.
For ease of reference we've discussed those studies and associated
national/regional initiatives in a detailed supplementary
profile. It covers North America,
the EU, Australia, Eastern Asia and the third world.
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