I saw that article and made similar comments to my colleagues this morning.
My point was that the digital divide community here in the US tends to move
the goalpost, so to speak, over time - from access to computers in general
to access in the home, then to Internet access, then home Internet access,
and later to broadband access, which is a divide with which many Americans
continue to struggle. And with the onset of ever-increasing bandwidth and
download speeds, the potential for some Americans to be left further behind
also increases.
As technology changes, so must we - I think that;s the appropriate mantra of
a Digital Divide advocate (dare I say "technology activist"?). That said,
the NYT's article seems too victorious in tone, especially with quotes from
prominent African American leaders that suggest that the Digital Divide is a
bit of a "misnomer."
I was reminded of what a former colleague told me when I was about to join
the Benton Foundation back in 2002 - "The Digital Divide has been bridged."
That was the popular rhetoric at the time here in Washington, "Everyone has
access to a computer and Internet access - our work is done!" They didn't
understand that this work is never really "done."
Cheers,
Charlie Meisch
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----Original Message Follows----
From: Andy Carvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: The Digital Divide Network discussion
group<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion
group<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [DDN] Race and the US digital divide: a current snapshot
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:22:28 -0500
Hi everyone,
Today's New York Times has a feature story on the state of the digital
divide in relation to African Americans and Latinos, emphasizing the
progress that's been made in recent years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/us/31divide.html
The article notes recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life project
that suggests a stunning 79% of English-speaking Latinos have Internet
access. This inspired me to blog about the issue, examining statistics from
both Pew and the US Department of Commerce, which has tracked at-home
Internet access for over a decade.
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2006/03/race_and_the_digital.html
Some samples of what I wrote in response to the article:
As I note above, the article mentions recent data from the Pew Internet &
American Life Project that suggests a surge of access, particularly by
Latinos. According to their data, a whopping 79% of English-speaking Latinos
access the Internet, beating out African Americans and whites - and perhaps
even the Nordic countries, which generally have the highest Internet access
rates in the world. However, it's worth noting that this 79% represents
English-speaking Latinos only. According to the US Census Bureau, there are
around 41.3 million Latinos in the US. Of these, nearly 14 million don't
speak English well or at all. It's vital we collect better statistics about
this community; otherwise, policymakers and philanthropists might hear a
soundbyte that says four out of five Latinos are online and assume the
problem is solved. Unless we address those who are most marginalized in our
society - those that don't speak English - we're not tackling the problem
adequately.
Moreover, it's worth noting that the Pew data looks broadly at Internet
access, asking respondents if they use the Internet at all, whether at home,
school, work or elsewhere. These numbers are generally higher than the
numbers of people who have Internet access at home. The US Department of
Commerce's NTIA office has collected digital divide data for over a decade.
In their surveys, the most recent of which was almost three years ago, they
researched the percentages of households that had Internet access. According
to their data, white households were far and away more likely to be online
than African Americans or Latinos. For much of the 1990s, Latinos fared
better than African Americans, but that pattern appeared to reverse in the
year 2000, when African Americans surpassed Latinos.
Why does any of this matter? As I suggested in the NY Times story, people
may have Internet access, but if it's not at home, that access may be
inadequate. Nearly 100% of US schools are online today, which would suggest
that nearly all students would at some point or another have Internet
access. But if some of them don't have access at home, they're at a severe
disadvantaged when compared to their wired peers. Access through libraries
and community technology centers are very important, but they don't solve
all our problems, given the fact they tend to have limited operating hours
and limited capacity. Some libraries are only open one or two days a week,
and for a few hours at a time; imagine asking every kid in that community
without home Internet access to complete an online course using such limited
infrastructure.
Read more here:
http://www.andycarvin.com
permalink:
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2006/03/race_and_the_digital.html
--
------------------------------
Andy Carvin
acarvin (at) edc . org
andycarvin (at) yahoo . com
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.andycarvin.com
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org
http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
_______________________________________________
DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org
http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE
in the body of the message.
