From Silicon.com... -ac
E-gov worsening the digital divide?
Will putting more government services online actually worsen the digital divide?
This is the implication of research into the impact of online school admissions systems, which warns there's a risk that only the parents who are already comfortable with the internet are likely to use them.
Add to this separate research which suggests that parents lacking internet skills can damage their children's education and job prospects - and you can see a grim future developing for a large chunk of the population.
The last thing we need is a two-tier society where those with digital know-how can grab all the best services while the less well-informed - and their kids - miss out.
There's a broader lesson here for the government as it pushes ahead with getting services online.
While the number of online households continues to grow, there will always be a sizeable minority that will not embrace the internet.
And many of them are precisely the people that need to interact with the government - the poor and the elderly.
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http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39130236,00.htm -- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com -----------------------------------
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