The Digital Divide has long been a concern. Back when we were starting out with online video, broadband was still a rarity in the UK - most people had dial-up. But then they opened up the market to competition and now in the UK (and where I now live in rural Canada), you get the impression that almost all people who use the internet have broadband.
But the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) published statistics recently for broadband in developed nations. http://tinyurl.com/oecdbroadband This puts broadband penetration at around 30% of the population of most countries. But I think that this is based on broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, and obviously there are more users than subscribers. The US figure is 75 million subscribers. That said, I have a friend in South Africa who says that although they supposedly have broadband, the monopoly telecom company doesn't provide speeds fast enough to watch even YouTube without waiting a long time for it to buffer. It's a good thing for us to remember. And it's not just speed that makes us elitist. Lots of people know about YouTube, but anything more complicated like having to download a new version of Flash Player or subscribing by RSS (or even by email!) is way over the head of most people I know. They just click off. Rupert http://twittervlog.tv --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "liza jean" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ever consider how elite this group is? given the chosen growth pattern > of broadband suppliers to feed only the rich neighborhoods > and 'redline' the rest, and the tiny percentage of the world's > population with access to high speed video on the net, i am not at all > suprpised to learn early web based old school 'tv shows' are not > pulling in the results required to support them. > > sent to you from my 150 year old farmhouse courtesy of my sprint > aircard. but i have to go into town and steal wi-fi to view online > videos. >
