The Digital Divide

by Fatima Rodrigues

Recently in the political, economical, and social worlds there has been some debate over the issue of the "Digital Divide."  The digital divide has to do with the differences in accessibility and use of technology (particularly the internet) in  the world now.  There are generally two different ways to look at this divide.  The first is the "global divide," which is concentrated on the differences between different countries in their "…telecommunications infrastructures, information transmission capacity, numbers of computers, website hosts…"  The second divide is a divide within a nation which focuses simply on those who do and don't have access to web resources.  This issue has triggered a lot of initiatives to spread the internet around, so to speak.  For example, many underdeveloped countries, such as Bangladesh and Mexico, have implemented "telecentres" where people can gain access to technological resources such as internet and even something as simple as telephone access.

In the long term, this divide has had a lot of consequences.  Obviously it has stimulated efforts to equalize the global access for internet.  An example of this is the Association for Progressive Communications, whose "Internet Rights Charter" urges for "…all citizens [to] have affordable access to the means to communicate, via the internet, and community controlled electronic media."(APC, 2002)  However, this has also had some negative effects.  In the last presidential administration (the Bush administration) these efforts have all been pushed aside.  Federal initiatives involved in the digital divide were shut down and the Department of Commerce began to avoid the term "digital divide."  Like many other issues that fell by the waist side in the last administration, the digital divide needs to be resurrected in federal policies and programs.  Hopefully this administration will the the divide justice.