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The Digital Divide

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Antwuan Wallace

walla355@newschool.edu

atw730.blogspot.com

 

  1. The policy context:
  2. What are the implications of the divide?
  3. How can we help?

 

Technology is only a positive if it is accessible – bridging the digital divide is consequently important. Telecommunication policy is the new Civil Rights policy – it will decide who gets their voice heard in politics. Who gets left out in web-based political organizing? Are bloggers speaking into a box?

 

The policy context:

President Clinton developed a study while president in 1994, "falling through the net." (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/NTIAHOME/FTTN99/contents.html) The report’s major themes: 1) more men than women 2) more rich than poor 2) more white than black.

Clinton gave out aid packages to help the situation, but Bush shut down both the study and the aid program. Bush ignored the whole situation, saying that all groups are getting more access, without mentioning that some groups are moving faster than others. His plan entailed giving tax breaks to businesses, without regards to the need for full access. Some states gave out tax credits to low-income-housing programs to incentivize wireless and broadband Internet networks.

 

What are the implications of the divide?

Limits potential – Without broadband and continuous access, there is no chance that individuals can get a real mastery of online skills, and they will consequently suffer in the future political market. Slow access, like dial-up, or limited access, like libraries, isn't enough to bridge the divide.

Questions the efficacy of the blogging community – There are serious implications for progressive bloggers who take up the cause of digitally disadvantaged individuals -- how can you advocate for the minimum wage if you never worked a minimum wage job? Problem is more pervasive -- DC's unpaid internship programs leave out those who aren't wealthy enough to work without pay. Moreover, bloggers won't be able to help people who aren't connected to the Internet (e.g. Katrina bloggers, who tried to set up housing and aid for people who couldn't access their services through the internet)

 

How can we help?

Are cell phones and wireless technologies the answer? – Maybe, (e.g. the 100 dollar laptop (http://laptop.org)) but these "computers" are proprietary (owned absolutely by corporations) and inoperable (not guaranteed to interface with other computers and networks).

Is Internet access enough? – Everything is an advertisement online, and most people don't spend time reading political literature. (e.g. college kids play games, not reading CNN) But these individuals still network and access news media, just in a different model than Americans of the past.

Is this a disease cured by the social justice agenda? – Better education, better economics, etc. may solve the digital divide, not the other way around. This doesn't mean that pushing for a fairer telecommunications policy is unimportant, however.


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