Primary devices and sheer volume of data have fundamentally shifted since we first became accustomed to online communication. As we turn the page again and look toward the next generation of connectivity on our smartphones, vehicles and more, wireless mesh networks are becoming an increasingly leveraged way to bridge the digital divide. By utilizing existing devices all around us as cell towers, this type of network can be exploited to expand coverage at a scale that can be substantially greater than conventional wireless networks alone.
In addition, by using multiple nodes for signal access, data isn’t obstructed or bottlenecked in the same way it might be on a single router or point of presence. In utilizing nodes as decentralized transfer points, mesh networks are able to bring connectivity to people in distant, costly or rigorous scenarios across the globe - making them key to closing the digital divide.
Read more: Mesh Networks as the Secret Sauce to Bridging the Digital Divide
Denmark, Australia and South Korea have come top in a biennial United Nations survey of countries’ progress in implementing e-government.
The survey, by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, notes an overall “persistent positive global trend” towards higher levels of e-government development – but the world’s poorest countries are lagging behind, the report says. The findings include a ranking of the 193 UN member states according to their scores on an e-government development index (EGDI).
Read more: E-government progress hampered by digital divide, UN report finds
A World Bank report says that whiles digital technologies are spreading rapidly throughout the developing world, the anticipated digital dividends of higher growth, more jobs and better public services have fallen short of expectation.
It said 60 per cent of the world’s population remained excluded from the ever-expanding digital economy.
According to the “World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends,” authored by co-directors, Deepak Mishra and Uwe Deichmann and team, the benefits of rapid digital expansion had been skewed towards the wealthy, skilled, and influential around the world who were better positioned to take advantage of the new technologies.
Read more: Four billion people lack access to internet - Report
The advent of the information age in the mid-twentieth century promised to flatten the whole world in such manner that no physicality could claim ‘invisibility’ due to the limiting barriers of space and time.
And true to that promise, the internet opened up the planet in more ways than one can name. Since its launch in the early nineties, the World Wide Web has significantly reduced ‘distances’ amidst people and places.
By 9.30am today I will have skyped Malawi, emailed Ghana, Facebooked Nepal, paid a bill online and used the satnav on my mobile phone. It feels a long time since we first got colour TV at home and, years later, when I accessed the internet using a dial-up modem. When I recalled these moments to my son he yawned. Aged, 19, he doesn’t remember a time before ubiquitous connectivity.
According to a new report from the World Bank, more than 40% of the global population now has internet access. On average, eight in ten people in the developing world own a mobile phone. Even in the poorest 20% of households this number is nearly seven in ten, making cellphones more prevalent than toilets or clean water.