Paperless Homework wrote: > http://blog.wizzy.com/post/OLPC-and-Classmate-in-Nigeria > > In fact these guys shouldn't be having Internet connections and it would be > much cheaper to operate the machines WITHOUT the Internet. That would save so > much cost In the context of the digital divide, isn't operating the machines without Internet connections self-defeating?
We all know, or should, that the digital divide is not really as much a technological problem as it is a socioeconomic/geopolitical issue with roots in just about every discipline - and lack of discipline, for that matter. The issue is getting people connected to something that we see value in, and part of that issue is also getting those same people to see the value in what we are speaking of. We discuss equal access - or better, the potential for equal access - so if everyone is to have equal access, how can we qualify giving some people less access and making them pay for it out of the same coffers that could be used to fill the infrastructural and policy voids? Why is it that so much time is spent making toys that use bandwidth and so little spent on dealing with the costs of bandwidth from telecom providers? The disparity in costs at geopolitical levels may not produce neon toaster lookalikes, but it is the root of many problems with access. We should probably be exercising the weak muscles instead of trying to show off the strong ones. ;-) -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
