Friday, April 16, 2010

Bridging the Digital Divide in Uganda


This video shows the impact and positive changes a community in uganda has after receiving a telecenter with phone, fax and a couple of computer. A lot of people in that community takes advantage of these resources. The farmer looks up information on how to be more productive with her land and crops, the bicycle repair man orders parts from distributors over the internet and kids have more access to books in their native language.


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Friday, April 9, 2010

Sources on Digital Divide

http://www.digitaldivide.org/harvardmit.html

One of the best websites with information about Digital Divide and the action taken by some organizations.

http://news.cnet.com/2010-1071-858537.html

This article offers information about the digital divide and the 21st century civil rights movement

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/race-culture-and-the-digital-divide/#

This site offers a conservative point of view on the "myths" of the digital divide

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/net/net.html

Resources on multicultural technology education. The site also offers tool and guides for instructors

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/digital-divide.html
This site explains the different stages of digital divide. Very interesting take on the subject.

http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/newsroom/stats/

global statistics of access to computers and cellular telephone services

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-09-05-digital-divide_x.htm

This article talk about the access to internet among white and minority students.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/cib/2001-02/02cib01.htm

Digital Divide in rural australia, its impacts and economic development.

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today

This site has information about how to bridge the gap in the digital divide.

http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/-guestcolumn/3808-re-conceptualizing-digital-divide.html

Article about the re-conceptualization of the digital divide in Nepal communities.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canadas-digital-divide/article1521631/?cmpid=rss1

Digital Dive in Canada.

http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/the-developing-digital-divide.html

Article about projects to bridge the digital divide gap in bangladesh, sri lanka and nigeria

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3005493.stm

Article about the digital divide and rural communities of the united kingdom.

http://rsj.e-contentmanagement.com/archives/vol/12/issue/3/article/1295/the-rural-digital-divide

more information about the digital divide in Australia

http://www.idrc.ca/panasia/ev-117803-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

intersection of gender and digital divide in pakistan.

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Race and the Digital Divide

I found some statistics about race and the digital divide in the US. These statistics are from a study done at UC Santa Cruz in 2003. Data shows how certain ethnic groups are more likely to have a computer at home and/or access to the internet. Here are some of the statistics that caught my attention.

  • Language is an important determinant of computer ownership and Internet use even after controlling for education, family income and immigrant status. Spanish-speaking Latinos, especially Mexicans, have strikingly low rates of computer ownership and home Internet use.
  • The Digital Divide is large and does not appear to be disappearing soon. Blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have access to home computers than are white, non-Latinos (50.6 and 48.7 percent compared to 74.6 percent). They are also less likely to have Internet access at home (40.5 and 38.1 percent compared to 67.3 percent).
  • Among Latino groups, Mexicans have the lowest home computer and Internet access rates followed by Central and South Americans who have the next lowest rates. Although Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Other Latinos have higher rates, all Latino groups are less likely to own a computer or have Internet access at home than are white, non-Latinos.
  • Income differences are partly, but not entirely responsible for ethnic and racial disparities in computer and Internet access. Even among individuals with family incomes of at least $60,000, blacks and Latinos are substantially less likely to own a computer or have Internet access at home than are whites.
  • Roughly 1 out of 7 blacks and 1 out of 8 Latinos subscribe to broadband at home, compared to 26.1 percent of whites. One third of Asians and roughly 1 out of 8 Native Americans have broadband at home.
While the study did not provided any evidence of institutional racism being in correlation with access to technology, these stats did shows how different communities have access to computers. Another thing that the study failed to clarify is that these communities did not have computers because they could not benefit from one. For example, the study found that many families of color that make about $60,000 a year did not have computers at home. These middle class american families are able to afford a computer, but it is unclear why they do not have one.

Source: http://www.freepress.net/files/lccrdigitaldivide.pdf




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