The Digital Divide

Digital Divide 2.0

For a long time now, we’ve thought of the digital divide as the divide between the people who have access to technology and also has the ability to use it and the people who don;t have the access to technology- let alone the skills. But now there seems to be a new digital divide; it’s not about having or not having, it’s about choosing to- or not.

The New Digital Divide
The Digerati The Left Behind
»Uses Firefox »Uses Internet Explorer
»Knows who Doc »Already has a doctor, thanks very much
Searls is
»Uses RSS Reader »RSS?
»Has a blog »Reads blogs (sometimes)
»Reads BoingBoing »Watches the Tonight Show
(or Slashdot)
»Bored with Flickr »Flickr?
»Gets news from Google »Gets news from Peter Jennings

Which side are you on??

After reading Seth’s Blog, I was more and more intrigues by this Digital Divide 2.0. We’ve all seen it, our parents probably have a hard time setting up a facebook account (or any account in that) or have trouble understanding RSS or html. But the newer generation do this everyday; we need to put an image in a site, but it doesn’t have the basic image uploader- so what do you do??

Firstly, you set up a photobucket account (easy, mostly 5 minutes), then you upload a picture into your brand-new nifty account (super easy!), and then you hover on that image, and Voila, you have yourself an html of that image! Another way to do that is to get the URL of that image and paste it into a basic html coding; a href=, etc.

Secondly, you go to that site of yours (a blog, perhaps?), you add a post (too easy) and you paste that html on that post. Then you’re done.

Now, how many people would NOT understand what the heck I was saying back there?? This is what I mean; there is a smaller yet also larger digital divide between people who have access to technology and also have the skills to utilize it. But, i mean seriously, why should we care about how some internet-nerds go on about in the web? Well there is something very important about being technologically-able, and not just knowing basic skills- that’s so last season.

When companies want opinions about a product they’re selling, or is looking to hire people who could probably work online, they search the web for bloggers (yes, that’s how they know what the public is thinking) and they look through what these net-nerds are talking about, and they most likely would hire them because they have such skills and that they’re so open about it. Yep, yep the net-nerds are what journalists, politicians and companies look to at first- cause they’re so accessible!

So what should you do now? You get your mind straight and at least try out all these awesome tools online which could help you greatly on your work, or even just making the net easier to use and control /organize. Better Hurry though- as Seth says- the new net-worthy community won’t wait for you :)

Reference
Godin, Seth. “The New Digital Divide.” Seth’s Blog. 15 Mar 2009 .>

References.

» Bridging The Digital Divide
Alter, Jonathan. “Bridging The Digital Divide.” NewsWeek. NewsWeek. 15 Mar 2009 .

» Movie of Digital Divide In Uganda
“The Digital Divide In Uganda.” YouTube. YouTube. 15 Mar 2009 .

» One Laptop Per Child
“Give A Laptop. Change The World.” One Laptop Per Child. One Laptop Per Child. 15 Mar 2009 .»>

How About Some Simple Solutions?

Now that you’ve learned some things about the Digital Divide, why don’t you aware other people about it? There are actually a lot of people who don’t know about this ever-growing issue! Along with giving awareness on the Digital Divide, why not educate Information Technology to other people too? There is no harm in visiting a local school and teaching them some basics on using a computer and finding their ways through the internet to get more information than what they may get from a textbook; even though it might mean little to you, it would be a great deal to them.

Another way to fight against the digital divide is donating any kinds of technology you have laying around in your house; yes, i know about them! We all have broken laptops, mobile phones, radios, iPods (it doesn’t only have to be computers!). If you don’t use them anymore, why not donate it to a local project -or even better- have your own little project where you could ask your friends if they could donate some stuff too. Imagine what a difference your old phones and laptops could do to children living under a dollar a day!

Solutions, Anyone??

And now that you’ve heard of how bad this digital divide is, here are some solutions to close this digital gap;

One Laptop Per Child
Mission Statement To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.(OLPC)

This site hosts one of the most important projects in the world trying to bridge the gap which is the digital divide. The site shows anything you need to know, and it stresses out that it’s not a laptop/IT project, it’s a project trying to also enhance the education. As I said in an earlier post, the digital divide reaaally effects the education of a person; so this project is a perfect way to assist both problems. By giving each school-student an XO laptop, we are opening them to so many windows of opportunities that we take for granted, and they should have that privilege as well. The XO laptop is designed especialy for children who live in developing countries, and pretty much in the middle of nowhere! They are the size of a notebook, has built-in wireless and most importantly, unique and fun. Please go to their site (click the picture above) and help this project so that in the near future, the Digital Divide would be a thing of the past!!

The Digital Divide & The PPF

This is the PPF model or the Production Possibility Frontier , where you can determine the costs of creating an item, but it can only work if you have two different goods and if all the factors of producing are working in full-blast (labor, technology, etc.) The PPF model below shows a normal production of two different goods; books and pencils, whilst the PPF model beside it shows the model when information technology is added to the production. Do you notice how improved the model after IT is? This is a large effect of having IT and good skills to use it; you can improve the rate of production and create more pencils and books as shown in my model. So imagine countries who couldn’t afford this kind of technology and couldn’t use the IT as wisely as other developed countries, do you realize that they will also be behind economically? This is why the digital divide is such an important gap, because it can throw the world’s economy out of balance!

More Info;

So, where can you see this digital divide? It’s everywhere, really. You probably realize that in a big bustling city, information technology is used very widely, whilst in more rural areas, phones might not be able to work as good because there isn’t enough signal. Or an even worse example; where countries in Africa or Asia might not be as educated on using information technology or doesn’t even have access to these gadgets, this is the digital divide. After going through a school project on interviewing local schools in Indonesia about their access to IT and the skills they have, most of them said they have computers and could access the internet; but they don’t use as much facilities as we take for granted. Pretty weird, huh? what’s the point of having a computer when you don’t know how to use it- so just having access to IT doesn’t mean that you’ve closed the gap with another person in a more developed country!

What Is The Digital Divide?

What is the digital divide?
It’s pretty much the gap between people who have access to Technology and have the resources and skills to use it and other people who do not have as much or nearly no access to Technology, but it’s getting worse; the “gap” is surely getting larger as developed countries strive to develop new technology whilst the other half of the world don’t even know what technology is. Another problem is that it would give the ‘Haves’ a head start as they already have a large range of education and a higher chance of getting employed than the ‘Have Nots’. Imagine telling your boss during interviews that you don’t have a computer and that you can’t use them very well either; what are the chances of your boss picking you? The internet is now extremely crucial to any kinds of business. You see a nice store opening up in your nearby mall, but it’s not opened yet. You go home, you google (yes, google is officially a word in the dictionary) it and you find their website! You then look through their items and you buy them online. It’s so widely used that you can make money from the internet, you can develop your business, your knowledge, your skills, all through the mass market which is the internet. All the while, the ‘Have Nots’ are still quite scared of this technology…

Okay, so why is there still the digital divide in 2009?
Humans tend to be more greedy than opportunistic; therefore the idea of spending a LOT of money to poverty stricken countries in Asia, Africa and South America isn’t the most favored idea. And also, the Have Not’s would only learn to ask for money from developed countries instead of learning how to get that money by yourself; as the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he will eat for the day, tech a man to fish and he will eat…forever. I’m not sure that’s right.