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Big World > Links > ICT Sources by Topic
Digital Divide
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An annotated list of key on-line sources which focuses on the growing digital divide between rich and poor, north and south.
Africa and the Digital Inclusion: Personal Reflectionshttp://www.dse.de/ef/digital/solta2-d.htm Author(s): Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, Chief, Development Information Services Division, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Addis Ababa Summary: This contribution intends to share some views related to the major issues addressed during the two days Dialogue, with a special focus on Africa.
African Internet Statushttp://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm Author(s): Mike Jensen Date of publication: May 2001 Summary: The Internet has grown rapidly on the continent over the last few years. At the end of 1996 only 11 countries had Internet access, but by November 2000 all 54 countries and territories had achieved permanent connectivity and the presence of local full service dialup ISPs.
Assessment of Technology Infrastructure in Native Communitieshttp://www.doc.gov/eda/pdf/1G3_13_atinc.pdf Summary:On August 6, 1998, President Clinton directed the Department of Commerce, in conjunction with the Department of Interior and Native American tribes, to undertake a technology infrastructure study of American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The study was to fulfill three fundamental goals: Assess the current state of technology infrastructure in Native communities. Identify and describe the challenges and barriers to technology infrastructure development in Native communities. Propose solutions for overcoming these challenges and barriers.
Bridging the digital divideDate of publication: October 14 1999 Summary: In this special report, BBC News Online probes the growing gap between the information rich and information poor: How big is it? Why is it so hard to close? And how are individuals and communities around the globe trying to bridge the digital divide?
Bridging The Digital Divide And Bringing Hopehttp://allafrica.com/stories/200206050519.html Source(s):UN Integrated Regional Information Networks Date of publication: June 5 2002 Summary:The community (Dikhatole, a township just east of Johannesburg) is marginalised and poverty stricken with little or no basic service provision. It would likely remain so, were it not for an innovative initiative driven by the non-profit Organisation for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT). Recognising the extreme need of the people of Dikhatole, ORT has set about equipping members of the community with basic computer, internet and business skills.
Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Usehttp://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html Author(s): Thomas P. Novak (http://ecommerce.vanderbilt.edu/tnvita.html) and Donna L. Hoffman (http://ecommerce.vanderbilt.edu/dhvita.html), Project 2000, Vanderbilt University (http://ecommerce.vanderbilt.edu/). Date of publication: February 2 1998 Summary: We set out to systematically investigate the differences between whites and African Americans in the United States with respect to computer access, which is the current prerequisite for Internet access, and Web use. We wished to examine whether observed race differences in access and use can be accounted for by differences in income and education, how access impacts use, and when race matters in the calculus of equal access. We believe our results may be used as a window through which policymakers might view the job of ensuring access to the Internet for the next generation.
Bridging the Gaps in Internet Development in Africahttp://www.idrc.ca/acacia/studies/ir-gaps.htm Author(s): Mike Jensen Date of publication: August 31 1996 Summary: This study seeks to build on the activities of those who have helped chart the events in Africa toward universal access to low cost electronic communications and the associated activities that need to take place to build Africa's Information Society. It aims to identify the most important gaps in this development process, focusing on the countries, regions and sectors in African society that could benefit most from the increased involvement of IDRC.
Digital Inclusion: Impact and Challenges of the Networked Economy for Developing Countrieshttp://www.dse.de/ef/digital/ind0201e.htm Author(s): The Development Policy Forum of the German Foundation for International Development (DSE) in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Development (BMWi) Date of publication: January 23 2001 Summary: This Policy Dialogue was a contribution to the ongoing international debate on digital opportunities and, more recently, on digital inclusion. In this context the leaders of the Group of Eight Nations (G8) decided to establish a Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), and the United Nations, mandated by a ministerial-level ECOSOC declaration, decided to set up an Information and Communication Technology Task Force (ICT Task Force).
Electronic community centres - a platform to bring knowledge and information technologies to the peoplehttp://www.undp.org/info21/present/cainet/main.html Author(s): Dr. Hans d'Orville, Director, IT for Development Programme, UNDP (http://www.undp.org/info21/program/index.html) Date of publication: March 8 1999 Summary: Presentation from Cainet - Cairo, Egypt
Gender and the Information Revolution in Africahttp://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=471&CATID=15 Author(s): Eva M. Rathgeber and Edith Ofwona Adera (IDRC- http://www.idrc.ca/) Date of publication: January 2000 Summary: The essays in this book examine the current and potential impact of the ICT explosion in Africa. They focus specifically on gender issues and analyze the extent to which women's needs and preferences are being served. The authors underscore the need for information to be made directly relevant to the needs of rural women, whether in the areas of agriculture, health, microenterprise, or education. They argue that it is not enough for women simply to be passive participants in the development of ICTs in Africa. Women must also be decision-makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to accelerate African economic, social, and political development.
Government Restates Commitment to Bridging Digital Dividehttp://allafrica.com/stories/200205190086.html Author(s): Lillian Okenwa Date of publication: May 19 2002 Summary:By pursuing the realization of the Universal Access concept, the Federal Government of Nigeria has again restated its commitment to bridging the digital divide between rural and urban dwellers.
Governmental representatives from 26 countries tackle digital dividehttp://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2002/02-25e.shtml Source(s): UNESCO Date of publication: April 15 2002 Summary: In 2000, only 0.4 percent of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa were internet users, compared to 54.3 percent of US residents. Seeking ways to redress the imbalance, experts from 26 countries from all regions gathered in Paris today for the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme.
Heralding ICT enabled Knowledge Societies - way forward for the Developing countrieshttp://www.bellanet.org/gkaims/documents/docs/heralding.htm?ois=y;template=gkaims.htm Author(s): Vikas Nath (http://members.tripod.com/nvikas), Programme Officer SDNP India (Sustainable Development Networking Programme) Summary: The info-technological revolution, led by advances in information and technological technology, is re-structuring the global social economic equations - shifting from income divide to knowledge divide. The revolution on one hand is spearheading the growth of knowledge societies in developed countries and has aroused much interest among civil society, markets and the agents of change. On the other hand, more than 850 million people in developing countries are excluded from a wide range of information and knowledge.
How to bridge the digital dividehttp://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3QB03PAMC&liv Author(s): Robert Davies, chief executive of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders' Forum and Alexsis de Raadt St James is a Sloan research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Date of publication: May 3 2001 Summary: The world's poor countries are without IT. Companies have IT to dispose of. Therein lie the makings of a new scheme.
ICT Production and Diffusion in Asiahttp://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/dps/dp2001-08.pdf Author(s): Poh-Kam Wong (Centre for Management of Innovation and Technopreneurship, National University of Singapore) Date of publication: May 2001 Summary: This paper examines the empirical evidence to determine whether Asian countries, despite having captured a disproportionately high share of global production of ICT goods, have as a group been laggard in the adoption of ICT in comparison to non-Asian countries.
Information communication technologies, poverty and empowermenthttp://www.imfundo.org/knowledge/skuse.htm Author(s): Andrew Skuse, Development Communications, Social Development Department, DFID Date of publication: June 2000 Summary: Some commentators have suggested that the social and geographic distance between certain sections of the world's population is being rendered meaningless by new information communication technologies (ICTs), though is simultaneously creating an 'information excluded' underclass comprised of the world's poor. Arguments that centre on the dissolution of old development dichotomies such and North and South in favour of the 'fast' and 'slow' resound to the language of empowerment and disempowerment. Increasingly, the 'wired' world is being brought together as the global network economy emerges, though it is at a clear cost to the unconnected.
Networking/telecentreshttp://www.sn.apc.org/ecis/wshop6.htm Author(s): Johan Emberg, ITU (www.itu.int/ITU-D-UniversalAccess) Summary: The telecommunication infrastructure in developing countries is concentrated to the larger cities and in many countries virtually non-existent in rural and remote areas. As regards access to information and data networks, notably the Internet, the discrepancies between the rich and the poor and between urban and rural areas are even more accentuated. The gap between those who have access to these vital resources and those who have not is widening, also in many 'rich' countries. Even in advanced countries there are large pockets of socially or geographically isolated population strata which either don't have access to adequate telecommunications or can't afford modem information and communication facilities or just lack the required skills.
Problems and Prospects in the Utilization of New Information Technologies by Developing Countries in Asiahttp://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/kothmale_docs/paper_goonasekera.rtf Author(s): Anura Goonasekera, Deputy Secretary-General and Head of Research at AMIC. Date of publication: January 22 2001 Summary: This paper was submitted to the international seminar on Integrating Modern and Traditional Information and Communication Technologies for Community Development, Kothmale, Sri Lanka. With the exception of a few countries, most Asian countries have not benefited from the fruits of developments in communications technology. Growth, in most cases, has been deceptively slow. However, there are some indications that the traditional communication infrastructure gap between developed and developing countries - the one based on the total number of basic telephone lines - is narrowing
Socialise the modem of production - The role of telecentres in developmenthttp://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/10_Soc.html Author(s): Peter Benjamin & Mona Dahms for an international working meeting on telecentre evaluation, held at Far Hills, Quebec Date of publication: September 28, 1999. Summary: This article questions the role of telecentres as a vehicle for development in countries of the South with particular reference to South Africa. The organisation of the emerging Information Age is, in the words of Manuel Castells, 'Global Informational Capitalism'. There are forces that increase the power of a global elite while large numbers of people are excluded. This 'digital divide' puts at further disadvantage many people in poor areas in rich Northern countries and a majority of people living in African countries.
Spanning the Digital Divide: Understanding and Tackling the Issueshttp://www.bridges.org/spanning/report.html Summary: This report reviews some of the basic facts about ICT access and use, and provides an extensive list of resources for further information. It goes on to examine the major approaches to the problems, describing the various on-the-ground initiatives and considering government policies that play a role. It reflects on what is working best and what is failing -- and why. Finally, it illustrates the key elements necessary for integrating technology into society in an effective, sustainable way so that people can put technology to use to improve their lives: what we call "real access" to technology.
The Gaps in Provision: ICTs in Developing Countrieshttp://www.iicd.org/base/show_article?cat=1&article_id=10&subcat=7 Author(s): Andreas Crede; Robin Mansell (eds.) Date of publication: August 17 1998 Summary: This booklet examines the major imbalances that exist in the provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in developing countries. The major disparities in the provision of the telecommunication infrastructure between industrialised and the poorest developing countries are identified and the divisions between urban and rural areas are discussed.
The Internet and Poverty: Real Help or Real Hype?http://www.panos.org.uk/briefing/interpov.htm Author(s): Duncan Pruett with James Deane Date of publication: April 1998 Summary: Governments, donors and development organisations are rushing to realise the benefits that Internet access promises in the fight against poverty. But are the benefits it has brought so far merely isolated examples or are they signs that a revolution is underway?
The Internet and the South: Superhighway or Dirt-track?http://www.panos.org.uk/briefing/internet.htm Author(s): Mike Holderness, a freelance science and technology journalist, edited by Laurence Zavriew. Date of publication: October 1995 Summary: In theory the means to handle information are increasingly available and democratic. But in practice is there a danger of a new information elitism which further disenfranchises the majority of the world's population? In the short-term, the North-South information gap looks set to increase, particularly for Africa.
The new holy grail - ICT and the new economyhttp://www.twnside.org.sg/title/ict.htm Author(s): Chakravarthi Raghavan Date of publication: July 5 2000 Summary:Is Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and its benefits being spread more widely among developed and developing countries, the new holy grail for development and the war on poverty?
The Other Divide: Burning Laptops vs. Wiring the Worldhttp://www.panos.org.uk/news/March2001/otherdivide.htm Author(s): Doug Alexander Date of publication: March 2001 Summary:LONDON (PANOS) - A new global task force with an ambitious mission to eliminate the 'digital divide' - the yawning gap in information technology between the rich and poor - is offering high-tech answers to the world's woes.
The Public Voice and the Digital Divide: A Report to the DOT Forcehttp://www.thepublicvoice.org/dotforce/report_0301.html Date of publication: March 2001 Summary: The Public Voice is a project of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that seeks to promote the participation of NGOs in international decision-making bodies that address Internet policy. This report is submitted as a consultation to the Digital Opportunities Task Force (DOT Force), a Digital Divide initiative of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries.
Zimbabwe Bridges Digital Dividehttp://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2002/May/May3/1234.shtml Author(s): Nqobile Nyathi, Assistant Editor The Financial Gazette Date of publication: May 3 2002 Summary: ZIMBABWE has witnessed a telecommunications boom in the past few years, but lack of infrastructure and the cost of installing it continue to hamper the country’s efforts to make the means of communication available to the majority of its citizens.
Other sources and links
Altavista search on Digital Dividehttp://uk.altavista.com/q?pg=q&q=digital+divide&kl=XX&what=web&search.x=0&search.y=0 A list of search results using the search engine Altavista.
Digital Divide Networkhttp://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/ At the Digital Divide Network, we examine the digital divide from many perspectives. The website offers a range of information, tools and resources that help practictioners stay on top of digital divide developments. It also serves as forum where practictioners can share their experiences with colleagues around the world. We look at the causes and effects of the divide from four distinct angles: technology access, literacy and learning, content, and economic development. In each of these areas, we pay particular attention to the role of local individuals and organizations when it comes to bridging the divide.
Digital Divide Solutionshttp://www.asu.edu/DigitalDivideSolutions/ This website is dedicated to providing useful, relevant information about the digital divide, and how to address it, to interested individuals and organizations. The site attempts to consolidate the increasing wealth of information being generated about the digital divide, and to link to other resources that can help individuals and organizations concerned with the issue.
Google directory on Digital DivideGives links to relevant web sites.
Lycos search on Digital Dividehttp://search.lycos.com/main/?query=digital+divide&rd=y A list of search results using the search engine Lycos.
OneWorld Digital Divide Campaignhttp://www.oneworld.net/campaigns/digitaldivide/ Can the internet be harnessed to provide benefits for all, or will it continue to be the preserve of a rich few? OneWorld's Digital Divide campaign tracks efforts to bridge the gap, and gives you a chance to get involved.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Resourceshttp://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?do=browse&categories=4 Resources on Digital Divide issues in developing countries
Yahoo directory on Digital Dividehttp://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Science__Technology__and_Society_Studies/Digital_Divide/ Gives links to relevant organizations and articles. |
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