Download or read book The Digital Divide written by Jan van Dijk and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to optimistic visions of a free internet for all, the problem of the ‘digital divide’ – the disparity between those with access to internet technology and those without – has persisted for close to twenty-five years. In this textbook, Jan van Dijk considers the state of digital inequality and what we can do to tackle it. Through an accessible framework based on empirical research, he explores the motivations and challenges of seeking access and the development of requisite digital skills. He addresses key questions such as: Does digital inequality reduce or reinforce existing, traditional inequalities? Does it create new, previously unknown social inequalities? While digital inequality affects all aspects of society and the problem is here to stay, Van Dijk outlines policies we can put in place to mitigate it. The Digital Divide is required reading for students and scholars of media, communication, sociology, and related disciplines, as well as for policymakers.

Download or read book International Economic Law and the Digital Divide written by Rohan Kariyawasam and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this well researched book, the author explains the digital divide and its repercussions for developed and developing nations. In his view, the overzealous disciplining at the WTO-level of instruments affecting trade notwithstanding, developing countries still have important tools in their hands (intellectual property protection, competition policies, tax regimes) that can help them attract foreign direct investment, a crucial ingredient in reducing the current divide. Borrowing from the institutions that we have seen developed in international economic relations is highly recommended as well. In short, whether the divide will continue to persist or, conversely, whether it will gradually become a historical feature of international relations critically depends on the political will on both sides (of the divide). The author makes a persuasive argument to support his thesis, empirically researched and with strong foundations in theory. Petros C. Mavroidis, Columbia Law School, US and University of Neuch'tel, Switzerland This path-breaking book focuses on the WTO, e-commerce and information communications technologies. It sheds light on how international economic law can be used as a tool in the application of technological processes to facilitate development in developing countries. Rohan Kariyawasam begins by looking predominantly at the rise of international digital networks. He offers an introduction to the networks used in the delivery of electronic products and network-based transactions, and the application of WTO law to the sector. He then suggests how developing countries can use economic law and technology to tap digital markets in the developed world. The book also argues that the advance of basic living standards in some developing countries can be achieved through technological processes, but that this cannot happen without such states paying greater attention to the enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights at home. Picking up the property rights debate (including through bilateral trade), the author argues that ensuring beneficial technology transfer will require balancing foreign investor rights to protect intellectual property. It will also involve restrictions imposed by competition law and WTO surveillance to check the possible misuse of market power by multinational companies. The proposed mixture of measures should, he argues, provide incentives for Foreign Direct Investment. Providing a thorough review of the application of WTO law to the telecommunications sector and the regulation of international digital networks, this book will be of great interest to postgraduate students in international economic law and international development law, as well as those interested in human rights law and technology. It will also appeal to government regulators, NGOs and technologists interested in ICTs and development.

Download or read book Technology and Social Inclusion written by Mark Warschauer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-09-17 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the discussion about new technologies and social equality has focused on the oversimplified notion of a "digital divide." Technology and Social Inclusion moves beyond the limited view of haves and have-nots to analyze the different forms of access to information and communication technologies. Drawing on theory from political science, economics, sociology, psychology, communications, education, and linguistics, the book examines the ways in which differing access to technology contributes to social and economic stratification or inclusion. The book takes a global perspective, presenting case studies from developed and developing countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, India, and the United States. A central premise is that, in today's society, the ability to access, adapt, and create knowledge using information and communication technologies is critical to social inclusion. This focus on social inclusion shifts the discussion of the "digital divide" from gaps to be overcome by providing equipment to social development challenges to be addressed through the effective integration of technology into communities, institutions, and societies. What is most important is not so much the physical availability of computers and the Internet but rather people's ability to make use of those technologies to engage in meaningful social practices.

Download or read book Farm Fresh Broadband written by Christopher Ali and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the failure of U.S. broadband policy to solve the rural–urban digital divide, with a proposal for a new national rural broadband plan. As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support.

Download or read book Information Societies and Digital Divides written by Bernardo Sorj and published by Polimetrica s.a.s.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Gender and Computers written by Joel Cooper and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003-09-12 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors explore the proposition that computers have the potential for creating inequity in classroom education and in who is encouraged to pursue the study of computer science itself. They outline some psychological factors that have contributed to the inequality regarding gender and computers.

Download or read book ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide Theory and Perspectives written by Steyn, Jacques and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide: Theory and Perspectives focuses on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which includes any technology used for communication and information. This publication researches the social side of computing, the users, and the design of systems that meet the needs of "ordinary" users.

Download or read book Digital Dead End written by Virginia Eubanks and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The realities of the high-tech global economy for women and families in the United States. The idea that technology will pave the road to prosperity has been promoted through both boom and bust. Today we are told that universal broadband access, high-tech jobs, and cutting-edge science will pull us out of our current economic downturn and move us toward social and economic equality. In Digital Dead End, Virginia Eubanks argues that to believe this is to engage in a kind of magical thinking: a technological utopia will come about simply because we want it to. This vision of the miraculous power of high-tech development is driven by flawed assumptions about race, class, and gender. The realities of the information age are more complicated, particularly for poor and working-class women and families. For them, information technology can be both a tool of liberation and a means of oppression. But despite the inequities of the high-tech global economy, optimism and innovation flourished when Eubanks worked with a community of resourceful women living at her local YWCA. Eubanks describes a new approach to creating a broadly inclusive and empowering “technology for people,” popular technology, which entails shifting the focus from teaching technical skill to nurturing critical technological citizenship, building resources for learning, and fostering social movement. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition.

Download or read book Virtual Inequality written by Karen Mossberger and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2003-08-18 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: That there is a "digital divide"—which falls between those who have and can afford the latest in technological tools and those who have neither in our society—is indisputable. Virtual Inequality redefines the issue as it explores the cascades of that divide, which involve access, skill, political participation, as well as the obvious economics. Computer and Internet access are insufficient without the skill to use the technology, and economic opportunity and political participation provide primary justification for realizing that this inequality is a public problem and not simply a matter of private misfortune. Defying those who say the divide is growing smaller, this volume, based on a unique national survey that includes data from over 1800 respondents in low-income communities, shows otherwise. In addition to demonstrating why disparities persist in such areas as technological abilities, the survey also shows that the digitally disadvantaged often share many of the same beliefs as their more privileged counterparts. African-Americans, for instance, are even more positive in their attitudes toward technology than whites are in many respects, contrary to conventional wisdom. The rigorous research on which the conclusions are based is presented accessibly and in an easy-to-follow manner. Not content with analysis alone, nor the untangling of the complexities of policymaking, Virtual Inequality views the digital divide compassionately in its human dimensions and recommends a set of practical and common-sense policy strategies. Inequality, even in a virtual form this book reminds us, is unacceptable and a situation that society is compelled to address.

Download or read book The Deepening Divide written by Jan A. G. M. van Dijk and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2005-02-15 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society explains why the digital divide is still widening and, in advanced high-tech societies, deepening. Taken from an international perspective, the book offers full coverage of the literature and research and a theoretical framework from which to analyze and approach the issue. Where most books on the digital divide only describe and analyze the issue, Jan van Dijk presents 26 policy perspectives and instruments designed to close the divide itself.

Download or read book The Digital Silk Road written by Jonathan E. Hillman and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on China’s global infrastructure expansion provides an urgent look at the battle to connect and control tomorrow’s networks. From the ocean floor to outer space, China’s Digital Silk Road aims to wire the world and rewrite the global order. Taking readers on a journey inside China’s surveillance state, rural America, and Africa’s megacities, Jonathan Hillman reveals what China’s expanding digital footprint looks like on the ground and explores the economic and strategic consequences of a future in which all routers lead to Beijing. If China becomes the world’s chief network operator, it could reap a commercial and strategic windfall, including many advantages currently enjoyed by the United States. It could reshape global flows of data, finance, and communications to reflect its interests. It could possess an unrivaled understanding of market movements, the deliberations of foreign competitors, and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its networks. However, China’s digital dominance is not yet assured. Beijing remains vulnerable in several key dimensions, the United States and its allies have an opportunity to offer better alternatives, and the rest of the world has a voice. But winning the battle for tomorrow’s networks will require the United States to innovate and take greater risks in emerging markets. Networks create large winners, and this is a contest America cannot afford to lose.

Download or read book World Development Report 2016 written by World Bank Group and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital technologies are spreading rapidly, but digital dividends--the broader benefits of faster growth, more jobs, and better services--are not. If more than 40 percent of adults in East Africa pay their utility bills using a mobile phone, why can’t others around the world do the same? If 8 million entrepreneurs in China--one third of them women--can use an e-commerce platform to export goods to 120 countries, why can’t entrepreneurs elsewhere achieve the same global reach? And if India can provide unique digital identification to 1 billion people in five years, and thereby reduce corruption by billions of dollars, why can’t other countries replicate its success? Indeed, what’s holding back countries from realizing the profound and transformational effects that digital technologies are supposed to deliver? Two main reasons. First, nearly 60 percent of the world’s population are still offline and can’t participate in the digital economy in any meaningful way. Second, and more important, the benefits of digital technologies can be offset by growing risks. Startups can disrupt incumbents, but not when vested interests and regulatory uncertainty obstruct competition and the entry of new firms. Employment opportunities may be greater, but not when the labor market is polarized. The internet can be a platform for universal empowerment, but not when it becomes a tool for state control and elite capture. The World Development Report 2016 shows that while the digital revolution has forged ahead, its 'analog complements'--the regulations that promote entry and competition, the skills that enable workers to access and then leverage the new economy, and the institutions that are accountable to citizens--have not kept pace. And when these analog complements to digital investments are absent, the development impact can be disappointing. What, then, should countries do? They should formulate digital development strategies that are much broader than current information and communication technology (ICT) strategies. They should create a policy and institutional environment for technology that fosters the greatest benefits. In short, they need to build a strong analog foundation to deliver digital dividends to everyone, everywhere.

Download or read book The Digital Divide written by Benjamin M. Compaine and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'digital divide' refers to the gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not. This book presents data supporting the existence of such a divide in the 1990s along racial, economic, and education lines.

Download or read book Captive Audience written by Susan Crawford and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of the nation. This important book by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this book explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing.

Download or read book ICTs for Advancing Rural Communities and Human Development Addressing the Digital Divide written by Chhabra, Susheel and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book reviews the important impact ICTs have on economic, social, and political development and provides analyses of ICTs for education, commerce, and governance"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Getting Smart written by Tom Vander Ark and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive look at the promise and potential of online learning In our digital age, students have dramatically new learning needs and must be prepared for the idea economy of the future. In Getting Smart, well-known global education expert Tom Vander Ark examines the facets of educational innovation in the United States and abroad. Vander Ark makes a convincing case for a blend of online and onsite learning, shares inspiring stories of schools and programs that effectively offer "personal digital learning" opportunities, and discusses what we need to do to remake our schools into "smart schools." Examines the innovation-driven world, discusses how to combine online and onsite learning, and reviews "smart tools" for learning Investigates the lives of learning professionals, outlines the new employment bargain, examines online universities and "smart schools" Makes the case for smart capital, advocates for policies that create better learning, studies smart cultures

Download or read book The Digital Classroom written by David T. Gordon and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Educators and technology experts share their thoughts on classroom technology and how equity, the digital divide, and other issues need to be addressed to ensure students and teachers are realizing the full potential of different technologies.