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Filed under : Kioskea - Tribune >> Web >> World Wide Web >> Digital Divide Key words : discrepancy,gender,have-nots,haves,language,digital divide,age,socio-economic,Digital Divide11 Feb, 2008 09:54 am | |
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Add to NewsvineThe term digital divide is the discrepancy between the haves and have-nots when it comes to acces to new technologies. However, the divide has many causes, more often than not, it can be traced to disparities in human development. Such as socio-economic status, gender, age, language and literacy, and urban-rural location.
Overview
The term digital divide is the discrepancy between the haves and have-nots when it comes to acces to new technologies. However, the divide has many causes, more often than not, it can be traced to disparities in human development. Such as socio-economic status, gender, age, language and literacy, and urban-rural location.
Moreover, between two people with the same socio-economic status, the divide could likewise be between those who have the skills, knowledge, and abilities to use the technologies and those who do not.
Bridging the digital divide is one of the priorities of the Philippine Government as embodied in the ten pont agenda of the Arroyo Administration. The E-commerce Law of 2000 has also pushed government agencies and local government units to go online, with the aim of reducing the bureaucracy by making e-services available.
Government is also trying to bridge the gap by exposing public school students to the new technologies via various programs, oftentimes with the help of the private sector.
Technological Divide began in the year 1455.
That year, Johann Gutenberg invented the, movable printing press, which made the mass production of books possible.
Digital Divide, as commonly defined, is the discrepancy between people who have access to and the resources to use new information and communication tools, such as internet and people who do not have the resources and access to the technology.
Dividing Factors
| MULTIPLE DIGITAL DIVIDE | |
| Between Nations | Between Individual |
| Development stage | Socio-Economic status |
| Infrastructure | Gender |
| Public Policy | Age |
| Language | |
| Rural-Urban location | |
Socio-Economic divide
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 2003 Human Development Report, a huge gap between the rich and the poor exist in the Philippines, as indicated by the 46.1 Gini index (see table 1). The index measures the extent to which the distribution of income consumption among individuals or households within the country deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.
Table 1. Inequality in Income or Consumption (yr. 2000)
| Share of Income or Consumption | ||||
| Poorest 10% | Poorest 20% | Richest 20% | Richest 10% | Gini Index |
| 2.2 | 5.4 | 52.3 | 36.3 | 46.1 |
In a country wherein there is a large disparity between the rich and the poor, it is not surprising that only a small percentage of the population enjoy the benefits of the Internet. In 2004, the international Data Corporation, an IT market research company, said that there were about 11.8 million Internet users in the country, out of the estimated population of 79 million.
Telecommunications Infrastructure Telephone Density
The deregulation of the country’s telecommunications industry has created a large amount of investment in this sector, estimated to total PhP130 billion (US$3.25 billion) over the next three years.1 The total number of main telephone lines in the country increased from only 785,000 in 1993 to 3.353 million at the end of 1996 to 6.64 million in 1998. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) reported a 1998 9.08 teledensity ratio (the number of installed telephones per 100 people). Expansion is projected to slacken this next year as the telephone companies will (hopefully) have fulfilled their commitments in terms of telephone lines they have to put up. The implementation of the Service Area Scheme to make sure that all regions of the nation have access to the telecommunications network, carried out through the National Telephone Program, accelerated local exchange growth. However, it is important to note that telephone distribution still remains somewhat unevenly distributed throughout the Philippines. The National Capital Region, for example, had a teledensity of 28.62 in 1997 which was much higher than the 1997 national average of 8.07. In certain parts of Luzon (Region 2), the teledensity in 1997 was 0.89, below the 1992 national teledensity of 1.17.2Growth in Wireline Telephone Service and Telephone Density Index3
(Population data shown in the table below was based on the National Census and Statistic’s Office’s medium projection of 73,130,998).
| Year | Number of Main Lines | Telephone Density |
| 1990 | 549,159 | 0.91 |
| 1991 | 583,594 | 0.95 |
| 1992 | 740, 033 | 1.17 |
| 1993 | 784,719 | 1.21 |
| 1994 | 1,109,652 | 1.67 |
| 1995 | 1,409,639 | 2.01 |
| 1996 | 3,352,842 | 4.66 |
| 1997 | 5,775,556 | 8.07 |
| 1998 | 6,641,480 | 9.08 |
Telephone density per 100 people improved four times from 1.21 in 1993 to 4.66 in 1996. This number doubled again in one year, showing a teledensity of 8.07 in 1997. The percentage of all cities / municipalities served nationwide climbed from 21% in 1992 to 27% in 1996. By 1998, about 87% of all regions were serviced by telephones.4Though growth in teledensity within the country has been quite positive, compared to other Asian countries, the Philippines’ growth in telephone density appears modest and the country still has much to overcome in telecommunications development. Thailand’s teledensity increased from 2.36 in 1990 to 6.4 in 1996, while Malaysia and South Korea’s teledensities exhibited stronger growth at 16 in 1996 from 11.39 in 1990, and 41.5 in 1996 from 36.72 in 1990, respectively. However, the Philippines exhibited substantial teledensity growth from 1994 to 1996. The annual increase in teledensity has been 41% in 1994, 27% in 1995 and 139% in 1996.5 Gender
Early studies on Internet activity show that it is largely male dominated.
In the Philippines, the gender difference is not that pronounced, In fact, an AC Nielsen study shows that though majority of Filipino Internet users are male (58 percent), Filipino females are not far behind (42 percent).
Age
Several sociology studies on the Internet show that age is another factor that affects the divide even within the same socio-economic bracket. A study by Internet research company Jupiter Communications Inc., Entitled “Assessing Digital Divide(s)” noted that teenagers and kids from low-income households will gain Internet experience at school and this exposure will get them addicted to the technology. The exposure to computers in school will give the youth an advantage over their parents, who did not grow up with the technology and may be even scared by it
According to the AC Nielsen study, majority of the Filipino Internet users are in the age range of 2 to 29 (48 percent) and 30 to 39 (32 percent). Internet users over fifty years old comprise only 5 percent of total Internet users in the country.
Literacy and Language
Since the Internet was developed by American computer engineers, English has naturally become the dominant language in Cyberspace. A study by Global reach, an international consultancy firm, showed that of the 313 million existing Web Sites in 2004, the English language comprised 35.2 percent of total online content. The other languages rate as follows: Dutch 1.7 percent; Portuguese, 3.1 percent; Italian 3.8 percent; Korean, 3.9 percent; French, 4.2 percent; German, 6.9 percent; Japanese, 8.4 percent, Spanish, 9.0 perent and Chinese, 13.7 percent.
While, knowledge of the English language is still an advantage Filipinos have over neighboring nations, the literacy rate is another factor that is indicative of the capacity to access the Internet.
Global digital divide
Another key dimension of the digital divide is the global digital divide, reflecting existing economic divisions in the world. This global digital divide widens the gap in economic divisions around the world. Countries with a wide availability of internet access can advance the economics of that country on a local and global scale. In today’s society, jobs and education are directly related to the internet. In countries where the internet and other technologies are not accessible, education is suffering, and uneducated people cannot compete in the global economy. This leads to poor countries suffering greater economic downfall and richer countries advancing their education and economy. However, when dealing with the global aspect of digital divide there are several factors that lead to digital divide. For example, country of residence, ethnicity, gender, age, educational attainment, and income levels are all factors of the global aspects of digital divide. In addition, a survey shows that in 15 Western European countries females, manual workers, elderly, and the less educated have less internet access than males, professional, the young, and the well educated”. The digital divide is a term used to refer to the gap between people who have access to the internet and those that do not. It can also refer to the skills people have – the divide between peoples who are at ease using technology to access and analyze information and those who are not.
Digital divide worldwide
Europe: European Union study from 2005 conduced in 14 European countries and focused on the issue of digital divide found that within the EU, the digital divide is primarily a matter of age and education. Among the young or educated the proportion of computer or Internet users is much higher the old or uneducated. Digital divide is also higher in rural areas. The study found that the presence of children in a household increases the chance of having a computer or Internet access, and that small businesses are catching up with larger enterprises when it comes to Internet access. The study also notes that “Despite increasing levels of ICT usage in all sections of society, the divide is not being bridged.”
United States: According to a July 2007 Pew Internet & American Life report, “47% of Americans have a broadband connection at home,” an increase of 5% in one year. Digital divide is a common subject in US politics and various government policies.
Digital divide, e-democracy and e-governanceMain articles: e-democracy and e-governance
The theoretical concepts of e-democracy are still in early development, but many scholars agree that blogs (web logs), wikis and mailing lists may have significant effects in broadening the way democracy operates. There is, as yet, no consensus among scholars about the possible outcomes of this revolution; it has so far shown promise in improving electoral administration and reducing fraud and disenfranchisement; particularly positive has been the reception of e-government services related to online delivery of government services, with portals (such as United States USA.gov) used as intermediaries between the government and the citizen, replacing the need for people to queue in traditional offices.
One of the main problems associated with the digital divide as applied to a liberal democracy is the capacity to participate in the new public space, the cyberspace - as in the extreme case, exclusively computer-based democratic participation (deliberation forums, online voting, etc) could mean that no access meant no vote. Therefore, there is a risk that some social groups - those without adequate access to or knowledge of IT - will be under-represented (or others over-represented) in the policy formation processes and this would be incompatible with the equality principles of democracy.
Overcoming the digital divide
Proponents[attribution needed] of the open content, free software, and open access social movements believe that these movements help equalize access to digital tools and information.
Projects like One Laptop per Child and 50×15 offer a partial solution to the global digital divide; these projects tend to rely heavily upon open standards and free open source software. The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world,[16] to provide them with access to knowledge. Programmer and free software advocate Richard Stallman has highlighted the importance of free software among groups concerned with the digital divide such as the World Summit on the Information Society.
Yet another solution is to try to better understand the lifestyle of a minority or marginalized community. In doing this researchers can figure out “what is meaningful to them [minorities and marginalized users] and how they use (or do not use) different forms of the internet for meeting their objectives”.[19] Furthermore, “a need for a re-examination of questions based on traditional ways of looking at people, their social dynamics, and their interactions with technology”.[19] Additionally, “One strategy is to transfer goal-setting, decision making, and choice-determining processes into the hands of the disadvantaged users in order that they ‘fit’ internet into their daily lives in ways that they themselves consider to be meaningful”.
Criticism
The existence of a digital divide is not universally recognized. Compaine (2001) argues it is a perceived gap. Technology gaps are relatively transient; hence the digital divide should soon disappear in any case. The knowledge of computers will become less important as they get smarter and easier to use. In the future people will not need high-tech skills to access the Internet and participate in e-commerce or e-democracy. Thus Compaine argues that a digital divide “is not the issue to expend substantial amounts or funds nor political capital”.
Article originally published on: Zwinglian
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