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 – educationJohnston, 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.