What Is being done to bridge
the gap?
So far we’ve seen how bad the
situation is and what factors
caused this situation, now
in this presentation I will
take you through what is
being done to bridge this
ever widening gap
nationally and in different
parts of the world.
Telephone ladies
One of the areas to try and bridge the
gap is Bangladesh and the scheme
being used is called ‘telephone ladies’.
As with most developing countries
Bangladesh has no fixed landline and
so communication is difficult. What
this scheme does is, the bank gives a
loan to someone to buy a phone and
then what happens is the village to
which this person belongs to will let
other people use this phone to call
their loved ones for a small fee, so its
almost like a business. As you can see
this would be a win-win situation
seeing as the person with the phone
is making a reasonable living and the
people that need the phone are able
to access it at affordable prices, so far
this scheme has been successful.
Kids to teach elderly net skills
BT is aiming to avoid total exclusion of the older generations
from technology by creating a ‘Grandparents day’ on the 24th
of September. What this idea is about is that BT feel that the
people that are at the best disposition to teach the elderly the
skills they need for the net is their own grandchildren and so
this grandparents day is to encourage children to get up there
and show what technology has to offer
Digital tax to aid poor nations
The Idea behind this is that the more developed countries that
are able to spare some money will be charged 1% from their
public technology projects and so this 1% of money will go
towards getting these undeveloped nations a higher level of
technology. This tax is voluntary and so far only Geneva has
agreed to it but is hoped that with time other countries will
come to follow their example.
DDD
Short for ‘Digital Divide Data’, the DDD is a company that
concentrates on teaching the disabled how to use
technology. Most of the times resulting in them going to
university and getting a higher education.
Started by Canada born Jeremy Hockenstein, he had realised
that on a trip to Cambodia that there wasn’t much hope and
that the future was bleak for disabled people there and so he
decided that creating the DDD was the best step to take.
On returning to the US he came up with the idea of creating a
data entry company similar to those found in other
developing countries such as India, but employing the
disadvantaged and disabled.
These are only some examples of what measures are being taken, in
actual fact there are many, many more people who are putting that
extra effort into seeing that the gap will soon disappear. But the
question now is are they wasting their time, or are these measures really
having an impact on the Digital Divide?
This question will be answered in the next power point presentation.
More Information can be found on the BBC Website.