Bridging Digital Divide

“Technology is only a powerful as it is accessible. Broader access brings education, information and a sense of community that can help combat AIDS, malnutrition, ignorance and neglect. The power of a connected and enlightened world community is just beginning”- Hector Ruiz, Chairman of the Board and President of AMD

Digital divide has been a common problem in today’s society and many organisations all over the world are now trying their best to stop digital divide. Bridging digital divide has now become one of the main topics all over the world; it has everyone talking about it. So how can we actually stop this? Surely it’s impossible as many countries have some other problems too? Should we not think about the bigger picture instead, like world peace?

In the UK alone, many have been trying on how to bridge digital divide. They’ve come up with many ideas like Race Online 2012. Race online 2012 main aim is “to make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web”. They also offer IT training and has negotiated a cheap internet packages to help people access the web.

http://raceonline2012.org/                                             

http://www.close-the-gap.org/ - this is another website that helps bridging digital divide.

 Ways to stop Digital Divide:

There are many and varieties of little ways on how to bridge digital divide. All little ways counts on helping, by just simply recycling your old technologies and then giving it to charities. I’m sure that many people has phones that they don’t even use anymore and therefore giving it to charities that help bridging digital divide would have a massive effect.

Another way of bridging digital divide is maybe by talking more about it publically. Let people know what’s going on so that they an idea on what to do and how to help. Or maybe even let students know about it, have a discussion about it at school so that younger people would know. By discussing more about this problem publicly, more people would take notice and maybe more people would then try and help.

Internet accessibility over the rural areas would help bridge digital divide.  As I said , rural and urban areas causes digital divide therefore by having an alternative internet access like satellite in rural areas , digital divide would be less.

What would happen if there is no digital divide?

I think that the world would be a better place. Each country’s economic state would improve and be equal. Access to Internet is now crucial and by having this, it’ll improve countries economic state as more jobs would be available. Also, in case of emergency if there are new technologies around it would be easy to call someone for help etc. Social life would be better and easier as you can then contact and be closed to anyone all over the world. This could also lead to everyone having better respect for each other and treating each other equally. If every one of us has equal amount of chances of having internet connection or technologies, the world would be a better place overall but as usual there will always be some negative about this...

Digital Divide Local

Digital divide isn’t just a problem worldwide; it is also a problem locally, in the UK specially.  In the UK today, fast and good internet connection and technologies is essential just like water and food. I think this is due to the fact that internet and technologies could do variety of things; it is the main source of information, there are many features and it is entertaining.  But there are still quite a lot of people with no internet connection at all and there are many reasons for this.

 One of the main reasons is economic state, money plays a big role. I don’t want to say that rich people get’s all the technologies they want and poor people doesn’t. I don’t think that’s how it works. I would say that people who have extra income could obviously spend their money for whatever they would like and for those whose income is just enough to live, they do not care about the latest technology to have all they want is to have a better life for them and their family and be alive.  That is the difference between the rich and poor for me.

UK is known for its beautiful and picturesque country side. But this is one of the reasons why digital divide occurs in the UK, they are afraid that by putting big buildings in the country side it’ll ruin its scenery and due to this most people in the country side do not have access to internet.

Most of the internet is used around the city areas as they are needed for work, schools and others. Internet and technologies are now crucial in everyday work life and student’s life.

This picture shows where most of broadband are connected. As you can see most of broadband are connected in the middle area of England this is normally cities, compared to the country side, it’s almost completely white which shows that there are less broadband connected.

“In the public sector, universities, schools and libraries are increasingly becoming reliant on electronic content and the richness of the internet.”— Digital Britain 2009

Education in England is highly praised and recognised all over the world. ICT plays a big role in education in England; schools are full of computers and technologies. For me as a student, I think that without ICT it would be too hard to study and I’m lucky enough that I know how to operate ICT and technologies.  ICT is now also important and a skill that is necessary to have in order to get good jobs and therefore by not being able to use ICT, you are already in disadvantage.

People with no education or have dropped out of education would find it difficult to control technologies and ICT; they probably haven’t even had a chance to play with ICT. Furthermore these people would find it difficult to get jobs not because they didn’t finished their education but because they do not have ICT experience and in today’s society having this experience is crucial.

Here are some graphs/pictures about UK digital divide

Digital Divide Global

Have you ever wondered if people in Africa or any less developed countries have the technologies you have? Or can they use a computer? This is where digital divide comes along. Digital divide has been a problem for quite a long period of time, Digital divide just like any other issue like economic and social problems, it is has become global. Global Digital divide is best described as having opportunity to access the internet, communication tools and any kind of ICT and technology and those who do not. But it’s not just about having these technologies; it is also about having the knowledge, the skills and the abilities to use these technologies.

The digital divide can exist through different situations like the area of where you live, urban area or rural area, the educated and uneducated and the difference between economic state of different countries and more.

Developed Countries

We now live in the world where if you’re rich, you’ll only get richer and richer and get more power but if you’re poor, it seems that you’ll only get poorer. This is a key factor that cause digital divide.

Developed countries have no problem on having or getting an access to different technologies and internet.  Their economic state is very stable therefore they have sufficient income and money is not a problem. They also get the best technologies, best technician and develop these technologies further. An example of this type of countries is America; America is very populated and has millions of people from around the world. Even though they are very populated, most of these people work everyday which makes America very stable. Computers are also provided in some work places therefore ICT skills are very much needed and therefore most American would know how to operate a computer.

Developing Countries or less developed countries

As we all now, money is a huge problem in less developed countries. If someone does have money, that person would have much at all. People in these countries simple do now have the money to buy and get technologies. Additionally, technology is not a big problem for them, it’s not what they actually need which makes it less important. First thing on their mind is just keeping alive and having the basic needs to live.

Income differences between the 2 types of countries would also cause Digital Divide. The more extra money you have the better chances of you getting technologies but as I said above in less developed countries, this extra money might be use for something more important for them.

Rural Area

Rural area is most likely to be located in the country side, this is where infrastructures are not developed, they also have low population and pretty much just all land. People who lived in this area might have access to the internet but it might be hard to get them as they’re isolated or away from the cities meaning that high speed internet connection is hard to come by as internet companies will not build an infrastructure in rural area as they know that there are less people and there isn’t much potential subscribers.

Urban Area

Urban area is the complete opposite of rural area. This is where many people are located and most likely to be located in cities. People are attracted to live in this area as there are many jobs available for them, big shops, many people to meet and just simple because their family is from there. Urban area is where you can see big buildings; these buildings will normally have computers. Many people would have access in internet in this type of area as they’ll need it for work.

Internet companies would most likely to be located here as there are more people, houses and more technologies around which mean they’ll get more money and income.



This is a graph about USA digital divide.  Although this shows that internet users are more likely to be in the urban area, we can’t hide the fact that overall both urban and rural area’s access to the internet is gradually developing every year. This shows that it eventually both rural and urban area would have the same access to the internet or the same amount of internet users  

Educated

Education is a big factor in digital divide. If you’re well educated, you’re most likely to have ICT available around you to help you with your work or even work in the future. Computers are vital at school these days as it has now become the main source of information and there are even some ICT specialist schools. Finishing education could lead to many life changing opportunities like getting a better job, higher up in the society status and this could all lead to having a better life overall not just for yourself but for your family. With a better job comes better income or money, this means that you’ll be then be able to buy technologies that you’ve always wanted. It’s amazing how education and hard work can change people’s lives.

Uneducated

Not everyone has a chance to go to school and even finish school.  In some countries you’ll have to pay to get into schools, money has massive effect to education. Without the right amount of funding, education would be difficult. Poor countries struggled with getting funding for education; this is maybe because their country wants to focus on something else or maybe just simply the fact that their leader is corrupt.

This also works reversely, without computers or any technologies education would be difficult.  This is why rich countries tend to have better school system and better academic awards or grades which improve their country over all.

Age

Some people would argue that age has a factor in digital divide.  Obviously the older generation didn’t grow up with technologies around them, technologies are just recently invented.  Older generation doesn’t seem to be encouraged to use technology at all, they don’t see the point of it but this is only because they are use to not having them. If you ask a teenager right now if they could live without technologies, the obvious answer would probably be no.

But for some older people they are now trying their best to learn or want to learn how to use technologies; there are many organisations around the world that helps them. This is one way of bridging digital divide which I’ll be discussing more off later.

This is a graph that shows people age over 18 in USA who uses computer or internet. This graphs shows that it is gradually increasing every year.

By narrowing the digital divide in the world, I would like to think that all countries would develop quicker and efficiently. It wouldn’t just help countries as a whole but it would also help individuals. Additionally, I think that the world would also be a lot closer as we could all communicate with each other easily and it could also mend the world problems and maybe even stop wars rising in the future.

Here are some stats about digital divide all over the world:

-      In 2004, less than 3 out of 100 Africans use the internet whilst in G8 countries its 1 out of every 2. (G8- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US)

-          There are more than 8 times as many internet users in the US, twice as many internet users in Germany and 3 times as many internet users in Japan than on the entire African continent

-          More than 40 countries have less than 10Mbps of international Internet bandwidth whilst in Belgium a 9Mbps ADSL high speed internet package is available