Have you ever thought what a pain it would be if, like 36% of the UK population, you don't have access to the Internet?
With these figures in mind and as a matter of fairness, it seems there’s still much work to be done to not just bridge but to curtail the digital divide.
Just imagine the savings that could be made if that 36% were web-savvy and able to access the Internet, and what a good idea it would be if electrical stores advertised how much a consumer could save by going online.
This would not only be useful information to the consumer, but it would also avoid any accusations of price discrimination that could be thrown at any particular supplier of consumer goods and services.
Beyond that there’s still more to be done with regard to education and accessibility to the World Wide Web in terms of providing a service for those who can’t afford a PC and Internet access.
“Those less economically advantaged members of our society are discriminated against, because they are encouraged to buy using in-store credit facilities, which feature high rates of interest, and so once again the poor are being asked to pay more for the same goods and services”, argues Sharron Robbie, the marketing manager at GOSS Interactive, which provides intelligent and enterprise-wide content management solutions.
Campaign For Fairness
GOSS is putting its beliefs and campaign for fairness into action. In essence the company is doing its bit to eliminate the digital divide with the work they are carrying out in partnership with Teignbridge District Council. The firm has made major changes to its licensing criteria to enable the Council to offer non-profit organisations a free web presence on the www.Teignbridge.info portal along with free user training on GOSS iCM software.
Judith Price Head of ICT at Teignbridge comments, “GOSS enabled this process through major changes to their licensing practices. They have helped assist us in adopting a very positive citizen-centric approach to e-Government. The availability of a free web presence means that local groups can publish up to date information readily and easily thus providing the citizens information that is specific and direct to their individual needs”.
Web Access Points
The most common place to access the World Wide Web is at home, said 86% of people involved in a Office of National Statistics (ONS) survey, which was published at the beginning of 2006.
A further 48% of respondents have access to the internet at work but only 10% of those interviewed for the survey used a public library for web access. Incidentally the ONS report shows that more men than women used the net for online banking, while more women than men involved in the survey used it for educational purposes. Most of the adults interviewed, 92%, had used a search engine to find information and a further 78% had sent an email with an attachment during the 3 month survey period.
With this survey in mind, you might be forgiven for thinking that everything smells of roses. However, Ping Wales from Welsh IT News Online warns that the digital divide is widening, and a report in Netimperative.com also warns that the next generation of broadband will exclude access to 6m UK homes.
A recent news story in the Daily Telegraph highlighted the case of Clarissa Daly from Lincolnshire who is fed up with what are called the ‘not-spots’ where broadband access is still not available or is negligible. She lives in the quiet village of Stanton Lacey, and this is fine and dandy, but what she would like to change is the speed of her Internet connection: she wants it to work at a faster pace than it currently does. We are now in the 21st Century, so why shouldn’t she be able to?
The Geographical Divide
There is also a geographical divide, which Ping Wales believes is widening.
The conclusion reached in ‘UK digital divide is widening’, by Marjorie Delwarde, cites the findings of research company Point Topic. It reveals that the Home Counties and London perform the best with 25 cable and DSL lines per 100 people in Wandsworth, for example, this number drops slightly in South Buckingham to 20 per 100.
The statistics for broadband access in the rural areas of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and West Somerset tumble down to the lowest rate of 4.9 per 100 in the Western Isles.
Going further beyond the social, economic, and geographic causes of the digital divide is apathy, a lack of interest in the Internet. However, there are an increasing number of ways to access the web, including mobile, so John Wilson’s description of Wales as a big white desert in broadband terms, is he admits not quite accurate. Wilson is a member of the Wales Broadband Stakeholder Group. Even though BT has enabled most of its exchanges for ADSL broadband access, it also appears that you can be 6 miles away from one in a rural area and still not be able to get online.
Solving the Digital Divide
At Governmental levels, nationally, locally and internationally, there are a number of efforts to fill the chasm of the digital divide with the help of a social inclusion and economic development agenda.
While most reports claim that the gap is widening between those who are ‘wired up’, and those who aren’t yet, a report by BBC News Online, ‘Global digital divide ‘narrowing’, reports that the World Bank questions the United Nations campaign to increase the usage of and accessibility to technology.
The organisation’s own report says that the gap between rich and poor nations is rapidly narrowing with half of the world’s population now having access to a fixed-line telephone and 77% have access to a mobile network.
For additional stories and case studies about GOSS visit www.gossinteractive.com.
Quelle: 50 Connect, 16.04.2006
