The Digital Divide
Computing@CM presentation
What is the Digital Divide?
Many expressions were used to describe the dichotomy of
people’s participation or not in the Information Society such
as information poor/ rich or have/ have not, but the most
widely spread now is the "Digital Divide".
 The term 'digital divide' describes the fact that the world can be divided into
people who do and people who don't have access to - and the capability to use modern information technology, such as the telephone, television, or the Internet.
 The digital divide exists between those in cities and those in rural areas. It also
exists between the educated and the uneducated, between economic classes, and,
globally, between the more and less industrially developed nations"
 (Whatis?com, 1999). "The digital divide is the "Differences based on race,
gender, geography, economic status, and physical ability:
Why is there a Digital Divide?
 Exists for different reasons in different parts of the
world
 Economic status
 Age
 IT infrastructure
 Cognitive and Digital Needs (Skills required to
use the computer and other digital devices)
Evolution Of Digital Divide
Typical measurements of inequality distribution used to describe the Digital
Divide are the Lorenz Curve and Gini coefficient, however, the question of
whether or not the digital divide is growing or closing is difficult to answer.
In Bridging the digital divide: An opportunity for growth for the 21st century ,
examples of these ways of measuring are illustrated In the Lorenz curve,
perfect equality of Internet usage across nations is represented by a 45degree diagonal line, which has a Gini coefficient of zero. Perfect inequality
gives a Gini coefficient of one. Therefore if you look at figures 2.4 and 2.5 in
the document, both graphs show a trend of growing equality from 1997 to
2005 with the Gini coefficient decreasing. However, these graphs don’t show
the important, detailed analysis of specific income groups. The progress
represented is predominantly of the middle-income groups when compared to
the highest income groups. The lowest income groups continue to decrease
their level of equality in comparison to the high income groups. Therefore,
there is still a long way to go before the digital divide will be eliminated.
Digital Divide and Education
 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. 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) students use
computers, and less on whether there are computers or Internet connections. Public
libraries and afterschool programs have also been shown to be important access and
training locations for disadvantaged youth.
 The E-Rate program in the United States (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, E-Rate has been credited with increasing the overall number of public
classrooms with Internet access from 14% in 1996 to 95% in 2005[. 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
Global digital Divide
 Canada: According to an Autumn 2001 Canadian Internet Use Survey, 73% of
Canadians aged 16 and older went online in the 12 months prior to the survey, compared
to 68% in 2005. In small towns and rural areas, only 65% of residences accessed the
Internet, compared to 76% in urban areas. The digital divide still exists between the rich
and the poor; 91% of people making more than $91,000/year regularly used the Internet,
compared to 47% of people making less than $24,000. This gap has lowered slightly
since 2005.
 China: China is the largest developing country in the world and therefore saw their
Internet population grow by 20% in 2006 . However, just over 19% of Chinese people have
access to the Internet and the digital divide is growing due to factors such as
insufficient infrastructure and high online
 Europe: A European Union study from 2005 conducted in 14 European countries and
focused on the issue of digital divide found that within the EU, the digital divide is
primarily a matter of age and education. Among the young or educated the proportion of
computer or Internet users is much higher than with the old or uneducated. Digital divide
is also higher in rural areas.
 United States: According to a July 2008 Pew Internet & American Life report, “55% of
adult Americans have broadband Internet connections at home, up from 47% who had
high-speed access at home last year at this time [2007]”. This increase of 8% compared to
the previous year’s increase of 5% suggests that the digital divide is decreasing. However,
the findings go on to show that low-income Americans’ broadband connections decreased
International Digital Divide
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The International Digital Divide, also sometimes
call the global DD, is easy to understand but
hugely difficult to overcome. Firstly, this
divide is an infrastructure problem. For
example, in all of Africa, there are fewer
phone lines than in New York City alone and
owning a phone is seen as a luxury item. The
costs are enormous and this is why developing
countries need support otherwise they might
not even be able to give access to their
population. The structural problem is not the
only one. In developing countries, the majority
of people besides wealthy individuals cannot
currently afford the technology, even when it
is available, so usage remains low. The World
Bank also stresses this point "Roughly 90
percent of Internet host computers are located
in high-income countries that account for only
16 percent of world population"(World Bank,
2000).
It would be an error to consider the
International Digital Divide as poor countries
vs. rich ones problem. Even within the European
Union, this gap exists. If in Sweden or the
Netherlands two third of the population are
Internet users, only less than 20 % are in
Greece or Portugal (European Commission (2)
2001, p3).
Domestic Digital Divide
. Access within countries can be looked
according following socio-economic factors:
- Age - Income
- Geographical location - Education
- Race - Gender
- Disability
Overcoming Digital Divide
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. The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive laptop
computer intended to be distributed to children in
developing countries around the world,[35] to provide them
with access to knowledge. Programmer and free software
advocate Richard stallman has highlighted the importance
of free software among groups concerned with the digital
divide such as the World Summit on the Information
Society.
 Organizations such as Geekcorps, and Inveneo also help to
overcome the digital divide. They often do so through the
use of education systems that draw on information
technology. The technology they employ often includes
low-cost laptops/subnotebooks, handhelds (eg Simputer, Eslate, ...), tablet PCs, Mini-ITX PCs and low-cost WiFiextending technology as cantennas and WokFis. In
addition, other information technology material usable in
the classroom can also be made diy to lower expenses,
including projectors.
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Overcoming Digital Divide
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International cooperation between governments have begun, aiming at dealing with the
global digital divide. For example, in an attempt to bridge this digital divide, an
agreement between the United states Agency For International Development (USAID) and
the Egyptian government emerged. The USAID funded state-of-the-art equipment for
Egyptian education, their brilliance of knowledge in using such equipment caused such
equipment to increase in use throughout the years. Now, Egyptian society is more
computer literate and knowledgeable about computers than they used to be. Nonetheless
it's a sign of progress that such attempts at bridging the digital divide are seriously
being made. Additional participants in such endeavors include the United Nations global
alliance for ICT and Development and the Digital alliance Foundation
Some cities in the world have started
programs to bridge the digital divide for
their residents, school children,
students, parents and the elderly. One
such program, founded in 1996, was
sponsored by the city of Boston and
called the Boston Digital Bridge
Foundation.It especially concentrates on
school children and their parents,
helping to make both equally and
similarly knowledgeable about computers,
using application programs, and
navigating the Internet.
Digital Divide Criticisms
The existence of a digital divide is not universally recognized.
Compaine (2001) argues it is a perceived gap. Technology gaps
are relatively transient; hence the digital divide should soon
disappear in any case. The knowledge of computers will become
less important as they get smarter and easier to use. In the
future people will not need high-tech skills to access the
Internet and participate in e-commerce or e-democracy. Thus
Compaine argues that a digital divide "is not the issue to
expend substantial amounts or funds nor political capital".