Reference librarian Shannon Bohle says that with the constant bombardment of new twists on technology, “we need to take a step back and consider how librarians in the last decade have found themselves on the fast track from the sequestered content villas of subscription databases to the sprawling information architecture of our new socially networked digital environment.” Moreover she conflates digital awareness with social awareness, even pointing to the digital divide “among us as librarians and among our own institutions.”
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Published by rwatstein July 12th, 2008
in digital divide, Africa and journals.
Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. is collaborating with several academic institutions to send journal archives to universities in Africa. This initiative was launched to encourage the recycling and reuse of past publications that may still be of use to students and researchers in emerging economies.
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A new Tufts University study sees the emergence of a “digital skills divide” based on socioeconomic status. The study, published in the March/April issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, finds that wealthy, educated Americans are more capable of identifying untrustworthy information about child-rearing on the Internet than poor, uneducated Americans.
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Published by rwatstein December 9th, 2007
in digital, digital divide and Intel.
Mayor Frank Luis da Cunha Garcia needs just a few words to describe how technology has changed life for the better in this remote island city: “Intel opened a window in the middle of the Amazon Forest for the people of Parintins to see the world.” A year after Intel Corporation and several technology companies installed a high-speed WiMAX wireless network in Parintins — giving 100,000 inhabitants access to medical, educational and information resources — Intel Chairman Craig Barrett returned to see the progress achieved to date. He also helped launch new initiatives to move the digital transformation forward.
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Published by rwatstein November 20th, 2007
in demographics and digital divide.
African Americans are becoming more active online. In fact, eMarketer estimates that they will make up 11.8% of all US Internet users in 2011, up from 10.8% in 2006. Yet, despite the fact that the costs of computer equipment and Internet access have fallen over the last few years, making the Internet accessible to all demographic groups, including African Americans, there continues to be a significant digital divide between White and Black America.
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Published by rwatstein September 22nd, 2007
in digital divide.
Online desktop systems could bridge the digital divide.
Cloud computing–the idea of relying on Web-based applications and storing data in the “cloud” of the Internet–has long been touted as a way to do business on the road. Now software companies are making entire Web-based operating systems. Built to work like a whole computer in the cloud and aimed at a wider audience, these browser-based services could help those who can’t afford their own computer.
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Published by rwatstein September 15th, 2007
in Pew Research, digital divide and broadband.
The ritual is familiar to those who follow communications policy: Every six months, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) releases its rankings of per capita broadband adoption rates. Every six months, the United States sees its ranking uncomfortably in the middle of the pack. Then the clamor begins in earnest. Many decry the fact that our rankings are lower than they were just a few years ago, down to 15 in 2006 from number 4 in 2001.1 Others criticize the way the OECD puts together the rankings. Some quarters call for a national broadband strategy so that the United States can recapture its leadership position and others argue that any government-led strategy would do more harm in the marketplace than good. Rankings-driven policy discussion might be helpful to a point, but the tenor of the current debate obscures two critical questions: What is the nature of unmet demand for broadband in the United States? And, secondarily, is home broadband adoption proceeding more slowly in the United States relative to consumer technologies of the past?
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