Hi all,
We at AWO are pondering the same issue:
Our editorial on 8 July:
The Internet, e-commerce and knowledge nations have become buzzwords.
Journalists, politicians, business people all spout and mouth the same
term and sport the same jig: the Internet will liberate us and provide
for all. It was to be the great leveller - empowering and enabling
everyone.
The Internet and its accompanying technologies are ostensibly new
technologies enabling the construction, organisation and dissemination
of information and knowledge. The relative freedom and speed of
communication it offers provide and unrivalled mechanism for the
production and dissemination of information. In countries with strict
media censorship, the Internet provides an alternative sources of news
and views.
The question remains: Is this great enthusiasm and optimism over the web
just hype?
While we can see the potential of the web, we have to realise that this
same technological wonder will be the bane of many poorer countries
which have little access to it and doing catch-up with the better
developed infrastructure in wealthier countries.
When access and inequality issues are raised, corporations typically
deride the critics. They claim that the Internet, instead of restricting
options, enables greater accessibility. But as the development of the
Internet progresses, there is now a chorus of growing concern that the
Internet may actually accentuate the gap between the poor and the rich,
men and women, across and within countries and marginalise millions of
people. And indeed this condition has caused concern and prompted both
national governments and international agencies to develop policies
addressing this issue of the digital divide.
According to the International Labor Organisation World Employment
Report 2001, despite the communications revolution given the speed of
diffusion in wealthy and poor countries, the information and
communication (ICT) revolution is resulting in a widening global digital
divide. Vast areas of the globe remain technologically disconnected from
the benefits of the electronic marvels revolutionising life, work and
communication in the digital era.
Perhaps for those living in the west, it is harder to envisage the issue
and problems in developing countries. While developing countries grapple
with the high costs of technology and Internet access, consumers in the
west have access to wide ranging services like cable access and
broadband services.
A few statistics will easily illustrate this gap. There are more
telephones in New York City than in all of rural Asia, more Internet
accounts in London than in all of Africa. As many as 80% of the world
population have never made a phone call. The Internet connects hundreds
of millions of computers globally but recent statistics put the
percentage of people having Internet access at 6%. Of course this divide
is felt most acutely in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
About three billion people in the world do not have access to adequate
sanitation and over one billion people lack access to safe drinking
water (UNDP 2000). Another one billion live in absolute poverty with a
subsistence rate of less than US1 dollar a day (UNDP 2001).
Access to the net in Asia is a real problem for many. Costs are high for
both access and also purchase of equipment. Internet users tend to use
it at work or come from the middle-class and well-educated
professionals. Apart from the costs, this access and participation in
the global information society presumes some level of education without
which the vast treasures of information and knowledge become
meaningless.
Is there anything that can do to arrest this increasing divide? The
World Bank is bent on launching its global development gateway - the
mother of all portals. Or perhaps we should launch more community-based
access to the web? How feasible can these proposals and projects be? One
can always plan for a computer in every village but does that address
the underlying problems? It does not address the issue of content
production, control and management. It does not address the issue of
corporations and governments who control broadcasting and transmission
rights. It fails to respond to the issue of control of infrastructure
and the development of associated new technologies. There are also
numerous other issues - the issues of governments, regulations, power
and governance.
Even if all villages have access to a computer, who controls access at
the village level? Who designs the project for them and if governments
are repressive, what does that mean for information access and
dissemination?
In reality, the poor will languish in hyped-up cyberspace while
questions of access, the barriers of language (if not addressed) are not
resolved. The reality is that many will be cut off from participation:
language barriers; literacy issues? and reliance on middle "men or
women" will only further aggravate access issues.
Notwithstanding the techno-cheerleaders, ICTS are not independent forces
and they do not automatically work for the better or worse or rights and
democracy nor even poverty alleviation. Perhaps as the ILO has
recommended, there needs to be a global policy framework that seeks to
address the needs, issues and problems of the digital divide in
developing countries.
More at http://www.asianwomenonline.com
Regards,
Wai-Leng Wong
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