Social Divide, even for those with access and educational advantage

Most literature surrounding Digital Divide is concentrated around the idea that there is just one type of divide. In fact there are several, complex problems leading to divisions. To categorize (still rather broadly) the concept of Digital Divide can be split into three areas:

• a global divide between the developed and undeveloped worlds
• a social divide between the information rich and the information poor
• a democratic divide between those who do and those who do not use the new technologies to further political participation

From an Australian perspective, concentration on improved access for all to digital technology, has done little to alleviate digital divide. Key determinants of internet usage such as age, income, educational attainment and Indigenous status are proving to be persistent.

Access to the internet does NOT guarantee equal benefit.

On a personal level, perhaps one can relate if you think about how daunting the prospect of either starting a blog, or joining an established online network can be. You can have all the tools in the world, and even have the education, but there is yet another barrier and that is social inclusion. The popularity of social networking and tools such as twitter, can confound even the most willing digital students.
Couple this with the ingrained privacy learnings of a non-native internet user (often referred to as a digital immigrant) who may find the transparency often required to truly take advantage of the internet as a knowledge tool quite threatening, and overcoming the generational aspect of the social divide is much more difficult than research suggests.

Question: How can the internet become attractive and welcoming to all?
Is it up to goverments to promote the advantages of online interaction, rather than instilling a fear of what you might find online (identity theft, phishing schemes, virus', child pornography, gambling etc etc)
Or is it up to individuals to put aside past learnings of social discourse, and embrace change, the unknown, and accept that the web is not a private place, but public....
Will innate selfishness of all humans stand in the way of acheiving the ideal?

Food for thought

The concept of bridging the digital divide is not so much about access to technology, but about the benefits of this access.

In following the ongoing discussion which surrounds digital divide, I have read about many and varied hypothesis as to why the digital divide is growing despite a concerted shift towards the provision of equal access around the world.

Dr Dinusha Mendis asks the question: Are digital inclusion projects in the developing world booming or are they doomed to failure?

Bridging the gap is not just about access to computer technology , but other factors such as education, cultural barriers towards this education, politics, economics and power. That is not to say that access to technology is not important, it is crucial, and it also appears to be one area of digital divide which is slowly closing.

Projects such as "One Laptop Per Child" has a fantastic 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." This NGO is working tirelessly to provide the tools of technology to the disadvantaged (be that children from war-torn afghanistan, desperate to learn and supported by Afghani adults determined to see their children given the power to take charge of their own learning).
In Bangladesh, the Grameen Foundation has proven that access to information empowers.
The village phone movement provides locals with the opportunity to take out a micro loan, which provides them with a cell phone. Imagine having to travel more than six miles from your home just to make a phone call. You would miss out on work opportunities and desperately needed income. For millions living on less than $2 per day, affordable and reliable access to telecommunications often simply does not exist. Without this ability to communicate, communities are at both an enormous economic and social disadvantage.

So, if access to technology is becoming more and more widely spread, why is the Digital Divide still growing?
Maybe because the Digital Divide is not a new phenomenon. It is just another facit of global poverty, it both contributes to global poverty, and is created by global poverty.

As sociologist Ulrich Herb puts it:"whoever is labelled as information poor remains passive and is object to experts' interventions... this construction perpetuates the subordination of developing countries under the postulated expertise of the priviledged western countries, which are provided with power"

So again, it comes back to power. Countries with initial advantage in digital communications will continue to have an unfair advantage, and will continue to foster digital communication as the only way forward.
Because the internet and associated technologies have been created by advantaged Countries (predominately western democratic), they control these technologies.
No matter how well meaning the global spread of the internet as a tool or resource to reduce the digital divide, it can't help but sanction the dependency of the information poor on the information rich.
This power paradigm creates the cyclic nature of Digital Divide. On the one hand existing nation power relations and modes of governance are contributing massively to the growing digital divide, and on the other, the Digital Divide is what prevents a solution to global information poverty.
As Foucault suggests the goals of power and the goals of knowledge cannot be separated: in knowing we control and in controlling we know.

The New Digital Divide

The New Digital Divide, originally uploaded by superkimbo in BKK.

Its not the access but the benefits...

This image can be found here it is by Taran Rampersad

"The concept of bridging the digital divide is not so much about access to technology, but about the benefits derived from access."

Look closely, the gate is tied together using an RJ45 cable, complete with a male jack.

Map to the Semantic Web

This map can be found here it is by Jurvetson

Follow the treasure map to Understanding and Harmony. Starting at accessibility heading through internationalistion past device independence, knowledge representation accountability. Here, we stop and look over uncharted land seperating the intrepid traveller from journeying across the sea of interoperability and then, once these waters are conquered: Efficiency, Harmony and Understanding.

I wonder what other things stand in our way?

Across the Great Divide

The creation of a massive digital divide between the haves and have not's generates a lot of commentary. This divide can be attributed to geographic, generational, socio-economic and educational divisions.

Australia is no exception to this divide, and whilst having an upper level percentage of population with internet access on a home computer (70% on par with the UK), there are still massive inequalities.

Not suprising is the growing digital divide between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

This divide can be attributed to most of the factors above: Geographical isolation, socio-economic and educational disadvantage.

As in any third world society (and I argue here that remote indigenous communities in Australia exist under third world conditions), resources are assumed to be an issue.

But this is one thing that is an anomaly in the case of remote Australian indigenous communities. Often, they are incredibly well resourced in a material sense. Brand new computers, broadband access. So why isn't this helping and who's fault is it?

I propose the main problem is the lack of knowledge how to learn, couple this with appalling literacy levels and we have a group of people who have been given the equivalent of an IKEA flat packed shelving unit with no instructions or allan key.

Some positive examples are appearing, for example this report on Djarragun College

that screened a while ago on ABC.

But the majority of remote students have access and resources, but haven't yet worked out how to learn.

In other countries, the problem of minorities suffering from digital opression is being addressed with the use of role models creating targeted sites to show technology is cool and worth learning about.

But in Australia we are faced with the additional problem of not only a huge deficit in Digital Literacy, but also general literacy. What's the good of a role model creating websites to encourage learning, if the target audience lack even the most basic skills how to read and write.

What are some solutions? How do you teach kids who don't yet know how to learn? How can we get to the starting line in addressing the growing digital divide, which is further isolating our indigenous communities?

Food for thought..