Digital Divide Professor Netiva Caftori Definitions

Digital Divide – Professor Netiva Caftori

Definitions Digitally Enabled What is it? Why is it important? Digitally Disabled What are the forms of disability? Why is it bad to have digitally disabled populations? Recommendations Dilemmas

Digitally Enabled Technical Low cost broadband – same as voice phone Low cost computing - !% of one year pay Infrastructure Available and Reliable Legal – Political Privacy protected Identity Theft considered a crime Contracts made over net enforceable Monitoring requires notification

Benefits for Digitally Enabled Increased Opportunity Work and results shipped via satellite India and China among others compete for high pay jobs with US engineers Worldwide market – First on-line bookstore in Palo Alto, Ca. became international supplier by surprise Access to education MIT Open Courseware O’reilly Bookshelf ACM and IEEE on-line libraries Worldwide visibility To the situations of the world

Digitally Disabled Forms of Disability Non-existent infrastructure High cost computing Limited Local Supply High import duties Government Restrictions Bureaucracy restricts content Government monitors what you see and threatens

Where are Digitally Disabled From now to 2030 World Population grows from 6 B to 9 B Bulk of growth in 9 countries, 6 of which are poor Digitally Disabled in poorest countries

Does it matter that large poor groups are Digitally Disabled Large Poor Groups are inefficient More Pollution person Lower lifestyle person per $ expended Large Poor Groups most subject to radical control Breeding ground for terrorists Large Poor Groups are not good customers

But does it matter to the rest of us that large groups are digitally disabled? We live on a small planet Pollution from the poor affects the air of the rich Radicals can do much damage for small costs if they do not value their own Property Lives Yes – it matters -

Who has noticed in the past? Gorbachev said in Perestroika Situation – Soviet Union locked in combat with West, spending large funds on nuclear war materials while its people starved. Gorbachev noted that his bureaucrats were worried about doctrine and instead should worry about empty shelves Gorbachev also noted that a free press and free interchange of information were critical to economic progress. Nations Opened up to Internet Not because of doctrine But because of economics –

Greenspan has noted The increase in productivity has allowed expansion without inflation

News Reports on China’s restrictions of Internet Traffic NPR report in September 2005 noted that China’s recent restriction on Internet traffic might hamper innovation in that country which has been a land of innovation in the past.

Let’s Say it Again It is in the self interest of the Digitally Disabled to join the information highway It is in the interest of the rich neighbors to assist the Digitally Disabled to join the information highway

If we are rich are we OK? We live in the US, we are rich and isolated, we are OK – Right Wrong – Much innovation that drives our progress comes from: – Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Russia, South Korea, and more

For Example Japan – Innovation in Hybrid cars Taiwan and South Korea – Semiconductor memories Application specific semiconductors Russia Space Software engineering Northern Europe Cell phones

Symptoms of Problems here? Reports that 75% of companies install key stroke monitors FBI attempts to monitor all Internet traffic – now supposedly abandoned 1950’s attack on academia by out of control Communist paranoia

Recommendations Encourage exploration of poor countries for outstanding opportunities Bright people who want to improve their neighbors Countries and localities that have a plan to attract software industries