Computers & Technology >
Computers & Technology (Other)
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs the digital divide actually widening?
Title endorsed in part by:
Results so far:
| No | 34% | 101 votes | Total: 301 votes | |
| Yes | 66% | 200 votes |
No
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to Favorites
Computer development since the introduction of Osborne portable computers followed later by Apple computers and a clone of others including the PC has been toward faster cheaper better. Jjust the thumb drive with multi gigabyte storage makes data very transferable for low cost including for educators in Northern India. If thumb drive libraries and simple readers are made for Afghan villagers entire schools can be created for less than $14.95. Education proliferation should outpace armed Islamic insurgent proliferation in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, yet governments and soldiers like guns and field training live fire exercises with medals more than politicians value creative intelligent political problem solving and the hammer is the political tool of first choice more so than the creative mind.
Computer access for the masses has increased every decade since the 1960's. Moore's law probably applies not only to computer power improvements but to accessibility as well. Computer production is out-pacing even population increase-if human political structures and individuals are daft occasionally and prefer war to peace and prosperity, that factor is a retardant on dissemination of computer access as well as the cost of computers and their inherent flimsiness regarding rain, humidity and lack of widespread solar recharging for notebooks.
http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Moore's_law
Digital distance is decreasing exponentially as portabler computers become ubiquitous and form a hegmony upon everyone's life. Even the military is making its record system digital transforming personel records in to objects for bureaucratic project manipulation by hackers and non-military government bureaucrats and others earning money from data shaping abstract personel records. Foreign nations too will enjoy the induction in to global databases where bureaucrats war upon them, to create the ultimate dictatorship of the bureaucracy. One can foresee the day when opposing force commanders will meet on the battlefield with notebook computers uplinked to super-computers in order to database war to blackmail and get one higher over the opfor peer commander who will need to yield or lose too much fiduciary value to abstract attack. Those people off line and off grid cannot quickly be database finessed. The line of cyber battle is drawing closer to them like a foaming scum line along the intertidal current upswelling zone.
Reader books something like the Amazon.com Kindle yet with a thumb-drive could be scaled down-with possibly a simple l.c.d. screen, and built in solar panel charging should be included. Internet access could become virtually free if enabled through power utility poles in ubiquitous locations or within other durable locations in poor rural nations. Such installations might have wind and solar generating capabilities as well for some kind of low cost rechargable battery to power l.e.d. lights. Synergetic, durable power and computer installations for off the grid poor might increase internet access in all weather cnonfigurations.
Cheap thumb drive readers for third worlders would change things faster and cheaper than notebooks. Reading is a smarter thing to do than chatting generally, although if one reads more than they write initially the quality of output can be increased substantially.
http://laptop.org/en / The One Laptop per Child program (100 to 200 each) may be rivaled by the 300 dollar Acer Aspire One a little-it has something like 165 G of storage.
IBM's former notebook, the Thinkpad, is owned by Lenovo-an offshoot of the Chinese Red Army, I believe. Efforts have been made to produce low cost computers for third world nations-increasingly the digital isolationism that allowed management of personal interests without the interference of global networks is being eclipsed...Nigerian scammers no longer need to wait to have American help in getting a bank account number to safely offshore and secure a deposit from the heirs of the deposed prince.
Computer web pages are usually not in 3-d, and so the quality of depth isn't used in web page navigating by computer users. If it was in 3-d hypertext and url link options could be on 'shelves' in three dimensions easier to pick to add to one's basket of interest and classification. Unlike the real world computer screen programming design places the viewer as parachutist free falling toward a screen but stopped at a certain point in geostationary orbit...new users getting access to the digital world of the Internet should have a multi-web page gadget packing for the 'cave' of their computer's 3d screen to use.
Poor, homeless computer users have Internet connections at the majority of libraries in the United States and need not worry too much about being left behind on the other side of the digital divide-most computer users aren't in pursuit of anything intelligent with the Internet but use it instead for gaming and chat, perhaps for shopping too with those clever disposable Internet cards. Target online at least has brought big box stores to sell wind powered electrical generators for about 500 dollars so things do change, though Wal-Mart lags behind bring low cost wind power generators to stores with grid tie capability-so more than just computer technology is available to consumers to get people off the hard-wired grid.
In Africa the cellular network architecture will bring the Internet via better cheaper notebook computers hopefully water-roofed and heat resistant soon, and obviously their are an increasing number of ways to access the Internet from wireless networks. The digital cyberspace world may not be as productive as Americans seem to believe macro-economically. It is a useful tool yet it cannot substitute for macro-political good judgment on solid material commodities and infrastructures without debt of trade deficits. The entertainment value of the Internet can be deceptive-the user of the Internet that doesn't read and think well, even if he can type 50 words per minute, is still an idiot with new toys unlikely to produce anything to generate new real wealth for the nation. Fundamental natural resource relations and balances haven't changed although their are many manufactures of substances in technical forms that configure comfort for users. Computer proliferation of hardware and software, though marvelous and productive for many still falls within the basic laws of thermodynamics and will not in any way alter the fundamental physics of things.
As society becomes increasing bureaucratized especially with its Internet perspective it may lose sight of the wood for the trees literally and figuratively and unwittingly support dangerous increases of entropy environmentally while simultaneously believing that the social structure is 'advancing'. Political surrender of democratic rights for individuals increases unnoticed as the lure of the cyber-world globally draws people away from any sort of healthy natural balance in to mass-reinforced values. If Nintendo is a high social value, can poverty be far behind? There should be a developing alternative to Internet infrastructure and globalism co-developing such that individualism, border and ecological national security for democratic rights and self-determination of the nation actualizes in a complementary way.
To displace the real environment and real personal property and off-the-grid infrastructure independence for global networks in essence as flimsy as the recent global financial system is rash and myopic with peril for Pauls and Paulines in the rapids of enterprise ahead. To assure that the present world living in digital darkness is not drawn in and sucker punched by premature, misguided reliance upon undemocratic global business and financial networks, defense of the rights of the innocent of network technology should be a goal for the United Nations and other international agencies with an interest in reinforcing democracy, national independence and the personal security of individuals in their respective nations.
http://www.portfolio .com/culture-lifesty le/goods/gadgets/200 8/01/04/Computers-in -the-Third-World
http://www.nytimes.c om/2006/11/30/techno logy/30laptop.html
Learn more about this author, Gary C. Gibson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Yes
The reins on technology has been cut loose; the constant introduction of 'lastest' technology only serves to widen the digital gap we see in the modern times. As we race towards an even more technologically advanced future, it is inevitable that certain groups or communities would be left behind to trod along the trails of our blazing pursuit. However, this should not serve as a means to judge on the correctness of society or whether or not technology does good or bad to mankind. This should purely be an observation that may at most, warrant an improvement in the diffusion of technology from areas of a 'high-tech' status to those we see as 'backward'.
Since the time of the Industrial Revolution, there has been an immeasurable change in the field of science and technology, culminating in a supposedly unfair distribution of 'high-tech' goods and services all over the world. As we carry on in our quest for more illusive forms of technology (nanotechnology, bioinformatics, nuclear technology, etc. just to name a few), we must constantly remind ourselves that the faster we run towards our goals, the faster people at the back of the group fall off, and more people would end up left behind.
The digital divide is just a small part of the entire technological rift that is constantly widening, with a stronger focus on computerized technology. It is evident that developed nations are very much interconnected with the introduction of the Internet in recent times, and that less developed nations, like those in the African states or Latin America, are facing a problem in getting hooked onto this virtual network.
Primarily, the reason cited for such problems usually include a lack of infrastructure, which also is brought about by a lack of government fundings to built up a decent network size of computers. The next issue we should also focus our attention on is the lack of proper formal education in these regions. The Internet is built upon a community of people who speak mostly English (not forgetting that other languages like French, Spanish, Chinese, etc. do have their own websites), and that people in the lesser developed regions may face problems in understanding these languages if there is a lack of formal education. This again, can be credited to the lack of funding in education. In short, as long as these nations do not make an effort to catch up with those who are working hard to hasten their speed, the divide will only widen in the future.
Let us now look at some information of broadband prices in the world. We shall compare the price per mega bit boardband speed, since it gives us a rough gauge on how digitally advanced a country is by being able to connect to the digital world. South Korea scores highest, with a cost of only USD$0.34. Other countries in the top rankings include Sweden, Japan, France, Italy. Countries like Pakistan, however, do not fare that well, with a cost of $80.43, and Myanmar's score of USD$261.75 serves as more proof of the digital divide. Last of all, Indonesia's score of $2,453.87 only serves to show the extent of the rift in the digital divide - 7217% times that cost.
Following the 'the rich gets richer' principal, the same applies for the digital divide. Those who have access to better technology are always in a better position to more advanced inventions and innovations, and this is why the gap will only widen further.
Fortunately, progress has been made in an attempt to help the lesser developed nations catch up in the digital divide. Second-hand or used computers have been collected in many parts of the world by various charity organizations to be distributed to nations that require them for educational purposes. This would aid in the diffusion of technology to such countries to educate it's people, and hopefully to encourage the governments in providing more funding for research and development, so that these nations, even if left behind before, can start to progress and move forward.
As we start to work towards more advanced technology, the cost of technology would be lower, and this would eventually trickle back down to those who cannot afford current costs of technology. As such, we should not try to impede the development of the digital world in the name of helping the poor, but rather, find alternative sources to help these people.
In summary, the digital divide is one that we can hardly aviod due to financial constraints and due to many other circumstances. However, this does not mean that those in front need to stop to wait. Also, this does not mean we cannot put in effort to help those in need. I believe that with a common goal in mind, and by constantly looking back to see how we can help those who are left behind, even with a digital divide, mankind can make significant progress in the technological fields of tomorrow.
-
Special thanks to "http://www.muniwire less.com/article/art icleview/6195/1/2" for it's publication on broadband prices per megabit around the world.
Learn more about this author, Adrian Tay.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
