Professional Context of ICT

The Digital Divide

 What is the Digital Divide?
• The gap between individuals, households,
businesses and geographic areas at
different socio-economic levels with regard
both to their opportunities to access ICTs
and to their use of the Internet for a wide
variety of activities
• Socio-demographic barriers
– Income, education levels, gender, age,
disabilities
 The Digital Divide
• Concern is growing that society may
eventually become divided into 2 distinct
groups:
– One having access to technology and able to
obtain information from the Internet
– Others unable to gain access to technology
and information
 The broadband divide
• Concern that the current divide between
those with Internet access and those
without will be exacerbated with the rollout
of high-speed access and broadband
services
• This divide will become increasingly
important as the availability of advanced
telecommunications becomes essential
 Urban/rural divide
• Those without enhanced data capability
will be unable to access the benefits
expected particularly in relation to
education, health and government
services.
 International digital divide
• Exists between different countries
• Concern that people in the developing
countries will not enjoy the benefits of the
new knowledge-based economy
 Internet usage
• 95% of Internet hosts and secure severs
used for EC are located in OECD area
• 60% of the adult population of Norway use
the Internet
• Less than 3% in Indonesia and Ukraine
• US = 60%
• Germany and UK = between 35-40%
 The Digital Divide
• Somalia
– 200 Internet Users out of 7 million
• South Africa
– 1.8 million Internet Users = 60% of all of those
Internet users located in Africa (Global Internet
Liberty Campaign, 4 May 2001 – www.gilc.org)
• Africa
– 0.2% of population have Internet access
• Europe
– Expected to reach 230 million by 2004 = 60% of the
population (Nua Internet Surveys, 8 May, 2001)
 The Digital Divide
• UK
– 13.5 million Internet users = 32% of homes
– 60% of the most well-off homes have Internet
access
– 10% of the bottom 40% can surf from home –
numbers are growing far more quickly among
the wealthier sections (Computer Weekly, 20
December, 2000)
– Implications for business – lack of suitably
qualified and experienced staff
 UK Users
• 94% of 16 - 24-year olds have used the Internet
• 17% of those over 65 have used the Internet
• Barriers
– Physiological effects of ageing, lack of confidence or
familiarity with new technologies, cost, location and a
belief by older people that e-services are of no
relevance to them
– Design of Websites – an examination of 65 websites
revealed that none complied with all the criteria and
only 25% passed test checking adherence with
worldwide standards

– Assignment = Go to web and find atleast 10 websites with adherence

with worldwide standards.
 USA Users
• 54% of the population used the Internet
• 90% of children aged 5-17 use computers
• 75% of 14-17 year olds and 65% of 10-13
year olds use the Internet
• Households
– Family income still a factor but
• Lowest income – increased at 25%
• Highest income – increased at 11%
 The Unconnected
• In the US non-users include:

– People in households with low family incomes

– Adults with low levels of overall education
– Blacks
 Latest world news on the Digital
Divide
• Africa’s total international bandwidth has
more than doubled in the last year
– Mobile has overtaken fixed-lines
• http://www.apc.org/english/rights/africa/news-content.shtml?x=6639

• Global Cities Dialogue (GCD) approved an

action plan for the development of
eGovernment services
– Has members in 41 countries and more than
100 cities worldwide
• http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.org
 The Digital Divide
• Does not merely mirror the divide between
developed and developing countries
– It reshapes the social map because it occurs
between individuals rather than countries or
whole societies
– It abolishes space and time constraints but
creates new technological barriers between
insiders and outsiders
• Technologies are not only tools but are
also vehicles of
– Affordances
– Values
– Interpretations of the surrounding reality

Any significant technology is ethically

charged
 Coping with the Digital Divide

• The DD disempowers, discriminates and

generates dependency

• Information Ethics is the new ecological

ethics for the information environment
 Sustainable development
• Sound construction of the infosphere must
be associated with an equally important,
ethical concern for the way in which the
latter affects and interacts with the
physical environment

– Positive – telework as a solution for traffic and

fuel pollution
– Negative – rising energy consumption, ICT-
generated waste, computer-related forms of
illness.
 Bridging the Digital Divide

• Means developing an informational ecosystem

management that can implement four basic
norms of a universal information ethics:
– Information entropy (destruction, corruption, pollution, depletion
or unjustified closure of the infosphere)
• ought not to be caused in the infosphere
• ought to be prevented in the infosphere
• ought to be removed from the infosphere
– Information
• ought to be promoted by extending, improving, enriching and
opening the infosphere – by ensuring information quantity,
quality, variety, security, ownership, privacy and access
 Bridging the Digital Divide
• G8 Dot.force - Action Points
– Improve connectivity, increase access and lower
costs;
– Enhance human capacity development, knowledge
creation and sharing;
– Establish and support universal participation in
addressing new international policy and technical
issues raised by the Internet and ICT;
– Establish and support dedicated initiatives for the ICT
inclusion of Least Developed Countries
 Bridging the Digital Divide
• How can this be done in developing
countries?
– Elimination of corruption
– Good governance - Application of the rule of
law, market liberalisation, fair competition, an
appropriate regulatory framework, and a well
functioning financial sector
• Key to establishing availability, accessibility and
affordability
– Capability – education
Johnston, 2001
 Government initiatives
• Demand stimulation measures
– Relevant local content, applications and services to
stimulate demand
• Available on the Internet, via call centres, electronic kiosks
and digital TV
– Identification of real service needs of regional, rural
and remote communities
– Developing community networks to stimulate demand
for enhanced services
– Provision of refurbished computers to those on low
incomes, including pensioners on Minimum Income
Guarantee
 Government initiatives
• Demand aggregation measures
– To aggregate customer demand sufficient to
warrant infrastructure investment
• Strategies to sustain demand and service
delivery
– Encouraging “social entrepreneurs” to
“broker” new strategic partnerships between
the private sector and communities
– Bringing access to people in the home, in
school and at work
 Conclusion
• The Digital Divide exists
• Access is still a major issue but …
– Offering the whole world a phone and a computer
screen will not in itself help to bridge the “digital
divide”
• Technology is worthless unless people are equipped with the
know-how and the willingness to use it
• Still a disparity between the richest and poorest
sectors of society.
• Still a discrimination against older and disabled
people
 Initiatives
• eEurope 2002 Action Plan
– Designed to bring Europe online as fast as possible
– Identifies successes plus remaining obstacles to the full
development of the information society in Europe
• UK Government Report on Digital Divide in deprived
areas (January, 2003)
– Proposes 21 recommendations to boost access to technology by
people from minority ethnic communities in deprived areas
• EU Commission
– urges Europe to move to broadband
– Invited all member states to commit to a comprehensive
broadband strategy
• New EU agency for cyber security proposed – February,
2003
– To prevent and respond to network and information security
problems
 Forthcoming Initiatives
• In December 2003 – World Summit and 21st
World Congress of Philosophy Conference
– Task
• to build a global consensus around a core of ethical values
and principles for the information society
• Fostering the formulation of universally recognized principles
and common ethical standards that will be a major
contribution to the construction of a better world.
– Goals -
• to extend the ethical concern in the biosphere to the
infosphere, to sensitize humanity to the new ethical needs of
intangible, intellectual environments, and to indicate how the
Digital Divide can be bridged
• To collaborate to develop a coherent and robust
environmental information ethics for the future of humanity.