4th Post! We're Bridging You, Digital Divides!

Okay, so I've read two articles about digital divides and the issues regarding the bridging of said divides. Here are the summaries!

First one is 'Bridging the Digital Divide' by Teresa Peters of Bridges.org. How does one measure a digital divide? According to Teresa, a digital divide between countries is measured "in terms of the number of telephones, computers and Internet users". Between groups of people in a certain country, however, race, gender, disability, income, age and location are used as measurements. Despite growing use of ICT, the digital divide is growing faster than it can be bridged because there are ICT 'haves' and ICT 'have-nots'. ICT 'haves' are increasing their access and use at a rapid rate, whereas the 'have-nots' are getting left further and further behind, even though they are technically increasing their own access and use.

So what is being done to address this problem?

Governments, individuals, etc have studied the problem and have suggested ways to overcome it, such as specific ground level initiatives and policy reforms. Many also cover wider issues that affect the digital divides, such as e-commerce and information society. Major international initiatives like the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) bring leaders and decision-makers from all over the world together to discuss the key factors and how to deal with them. But most of the time, it is a lot of talk with no action. There are also many 'on-the-ground' operations that are trying to help deprived populations get access to technology. Efforts range from creating centres where poor people can use the telephone and the internet, to programs using innovative technology in small business applications and are driven by organizations that range from the tiny, like SchoolNet, Namibia's effort to put computers in schools; to the gargantuan like HP's $1 billion "E-Inclusion" initiative to promote hardware innovations suitable for developing country environments. However, most of these efforts do not become self-sustaining because local people do not use them as they do not have locally relevant material.

So what exactly is needed? Well, real access, for one. Access to technology would not be enough if the local people do not use it because it is not affordable or they can't understand it. Bridges.org has come up with 12 factors that would determine whether ICT can be effectively used by the people:

1. Physical access
2. Appropriate technology
3. Affordability
4. Capacity
5. Relevant content
6. Integration
7. Socio-cultural factors
8. Trust
9. Legal and regulatory framework
10. Macro-economic environment
11. Political will
12. Local economic environment

Governments also play a fundamental role in creating a technology-friendly enviroment. It is their responsibility to use technology to ensure that their citizens would have long-term economic growth and social prosperity. To cross the digital divide and put ICT to effective use
to improve people’s lives, countries and communities must be "e-ready" in terms of infrastructure, access, training, and a legal and regulatory framework that will foster ICT use. If the digital divide is to be narrowed, these issues must be addressed in a coherent, achievable strategy that is tailored to meet local needs.

Whew that was super long. And now, on to the next one! This is summarised from The Digital Divide: Current and Future Research Directions, by Sanjeev Dewan and Frederick J. Riggins.

The digital divide is being bridged by way of providing internet access for everybody, but there are problems that arise, such as lack of tutorials that would help the population use what has been provided. There are some obstacles in the way, which hinder the bridging process, as what has been discovered in the study utilizing methods from visual studies, Barbatsis et. al (2004). It notes that many minorities find the content, information and services found on the Web irrelevent to their lives. The authors have found that the digital divide may well be more of a design issue than a socio-economic problem as the computer interface consists of icons, menus and command words that are familiar to white, middle-class culture but may seem foreign to others. Plus, visitors to websites like to feel that the web designer is someone like them. If there is a lack of 'near-peer experience', they would feel discouraged from adopting and further using that site, hindering the bridging process.

Besides appropriate interface and design, another way to bridge the digital divide is to provide ways other than the traditional means of access. Zhang and Wolff (2004) have developed an economic cost model to examine the possibility of providing broadband WiFi access to rural and remote areas using a few new technologies like high-grain antennas and multi-hop routing. The results prove that using innovative technologies can result in economic ways to enable people who live in remote places to receive internet services.

And now we've reached the end (at last!!) of the post. It is definitely not easy to bridge the divide, and I'm super glad to have internet!!