QuickLinks - Digital divide

recent items

Issue no. 191 - 19 March 2001

• Bridging the Digital Divide (E-PING!)
  Online Chat 20 March 2001, 13.00 - 15.00 Brussels Time. Chairperson: Diana Wallis MEP. Open discussion: Our Expert Panel will answer your questions on "Bridging the Digital Divide". The panel will consist of representatives from: US Department of Commerce, Council of Europe, European Commission, PlaNet Finance, European Parliament.

• UK - £10m computer giveaway (BBC)
  Thousands of families will get free computers under a £10m scheme to boost education and job prospects. Almost 12,000 homes across England will take part in one of the biggest-ever social experiments, aimed at tackling the "digital divide".

Issue no. 190 - 12 March 2001

• New version of the Digital Divide Network Several major features have been added, including the Digital Divide Database, a nationaldirectory of over 20,000 digital divide-related services around the US, including places where citizens can get free Internet access and IT training. The website includes a new search engine that will give access to archives of DDN's many news stories, feature articles, a calendar of divide-related events and relevant web resources. A new option allows individuals to become members ofthe Digital Divide Network.

Issue no. 189 - 5 March 2001

• Bridges.news (Bridges.org)
  Volume 2.3, 2 March 2001

• Support Network for Pioneering Public Good Projects (TEN)
  A global network of organizations and individuals whose purpose is to identify, support and empower projects that contribute to improving the state of the world. TEN has a special interest in projects, for whom information technology plays a central role in achieving their objectives.

• Toward Digital Inclusion... Access and Accessibility Revisited (Digital Divide Network)
  Examination of numbers on Internet access and computer use by people with disabilities.

Issue no. 188 - 24 February 2001

• Bridges.org Launches Southern Africa Office (Press Release)
  Bridges.org, an international non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the digital divide in developing nations, has expanded its mission in southern Africa by opening an office in Cape Town.

Issue no. 187 - 17 February 2001

• Newsletter (bridges.org)
  Volume 2.2, 7 February 2001. Items include an review of the Sustainable Development Community Network, News, Conferences & Upcoming Events and Links.

Issue no. 184 - 20 January 2001

• Dubai worried about 'digital divide' (BBC)
  An Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development electronic commerce conference in the Gulf Emirate of Dubai has been warned not to allow technological gaps between countries to grow out of control.

Issue no. 183 - 14 January 2001

• Brazil May Slash Computer Taxes (Wired)
  In an attempt to bridge the country's digital divide, the Brazilian Congress last week approved a bill that would ease the tax burden of technology companies so they could sell their products at a lower cost.

Issue no. 181 - 10 December 2000

• Asian Nations Clash Anew With U.S. Over Internet (International Herald Tribune)
  The clash between Asian countries and the United States over development of the Internet flared into the open again as a top Chinese official made a wide-ranging attack on America's dominance of cyberspace.

• India Seeks to Take the Internet to the Masses (Reuters)
  Indian industrial leaders called for measures to take the Internet beyond the country's thriving information technology sector to rural areas and the illiterate.

• Net opens Kazakhstan to ideas (Reuters)
  The people who gather regularly in the dingy Stalker Internet Cafe in a corner of Kazakhstan's largest city are fueling a revolution. Not a political revolution that might threaten Central Asian governments criticized for a lack of democracy, but a technological one that breaks down barriers to expansion of the Internet in this far-flung region.

Issue no. 180 - 3 December 2000

• New issue of Newsletter (Bridges.org)
  Volume 1.4, 1 December 2000

Issue no. 179 - 26 November 2000

• Campaigns (OneWorld.net)
  News and resources on the digital divide.

• Das Internet vergrößert die Wissenskluft (Heise News-Ticker)
  : Das Internet spaltet die Gesellschaft: Die Kluft zwischen gut informierten Viellesern und passiven Medienverweigerern wächst mit dem neuen Medium schneller. Die neue Studie der Mainzer Stiftung Lesen über das Leseverhalten der Deutschen ist ein neuer Beleg für dieses Phänomen, das die Fachleute "Wissenskluft" nennen.

• Digital Nations and eDevelopment meetings (Steve Cisler - First Monday)
  At a time when the concept of nationhood is being questioned by political scientists, forecasting firms, online visionaries, and political dissidents, the Media Lab at MIT in Massachusetts held a kickoff event October 18, 2000, for a new program entitled Digital Nations.

• 'New Economy' leaves Africa in dust (Reuters)
  Africa is still critically short of the basic infrastructure, technology, systems and computer skills required to support electronic commerce and "the new economy".

Issue no. 178 - 19 November 2000

• Africa finds no place in global 'new economy' (ZDNet UK)
  As the world economy takes off into cyberspace, Africa is in danger of missing the launch. Africa is still critically short of the basic infrastructure, technology, systems and computer skills required to support electronic commerce and "the new economy".

• APEC Promises Universal Net Access In Ten Years (Newsbytes)
  Politicians representing the 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies today put their names to a joint statement pledging Internet access for every person or community within the region by the year 2010. See also Clinton Warns APEC of 'Digital Divide' (International Herald Tribune).

• Developing countries pay heavily for lack of connectivity (Pana)
  Developing countries' lack of access to information technologies is partly responsible for their inability to adequately protect their intellectual property rights, including their traditional knowledge. WIPO plans to improve connectivity to the Internet of intellectual property rights offices of 65 developing countries.

• Net Sustenance (The Industry Standard)
  Third-world nations are getting online faster than Bill Gates thinks they are.

Issue no. 176 - 5 November 2000

• Bill Gates Turns Skeptical on Digital Solution's Scope (New York Times)
  For a man often thought of as the world's chief evangelist for technology, Mr. Gates is assuming a surprising role these days, in which he seems to be taking his own industry to task for having far too much faith in digital solutions to the planet's worst ills.

• Les pays asiatiques veulent accélérer la popularisation de l'internet (AFP)
  Les ministres des télécommunications de la région Asie-Pacifique réunis lors d'un sommet de l'"Asia-Pacific Telecommunity" (APT) ont annoncé leur intention de fournir un accès à l'internet au plus grand nombre d'Asiatiques possible à l'horizon 2005.

• Organisation Formed to Promote High-Technology in Africa (Panafrican News Agency)
  An organisation, the Africa Technology Forum, has been formed by African high-technology entrepreneurs and executives to nurture business relationships within the African high-technology community.

• Report shows African Internet use disparity (AP)
  To help Africa bridge the digital divide and gain access to new technology, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and executives from several multinational high-tech companies met to establish the Africa Technology Forum. see also Tech Forum To Attack African Digital Divide (Tech News).

Issue no. 175 - 29 October 2000

• Berkman Center, MIT Media Lab, and CID Join to Bridge Digital Divide (Berkman Center)
  Co-sponsored by the Berkman Center, the MIT Media Laboratory and Harvard's Center for International Development, the October 19-20 "eDevelopment" conference brought together top researchers, practitioners, businesspeople, community leaders, and policy makers from around the world to develop possible solutions to the digital divide. see IDG and Wired.

• Gates rejects idea of e-utopia (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
  Health care and literacy -- not computers -- are the most important ways to help the world's 4 billion poorest people, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said.

• Profesionales debatirán en Barcelona sobre la 'Cara Humana de Internet' (Europa Press)
  Unos 600 profesionales de 25 países de todo el mundo debatirán en Barcelona sobre el acceso de los ciudadanos a Internet en el marco del primer Congreso Mundial de Redes Ciudadanas entre el 2 y el 5 de noviembre. see First Global Congress on Community Networking.

• USA - Blacks Go to Net for Information (Wired)
  Although blacks still lag in access to the Internet, a new study finds that those who are connected are more likely than whites to appreciate its value as an information tool.

Issue no. 174 - 21 October 2000

• A Techie Volunteer Corps (New York Times)
  Volunteer programs designed to bridge the "digital divide" have been proliferating.

• Bridging the globe’s digital divide (MSNBC)
  Among the headliners for this week’s "Creating Digital Dividends" conference, presented by the Washington-based World Resources Institute, are Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Commerce Secretary Norm Mineta and WorldCom’s Vinton Cerf, the most prominent of the Internet’s founding fathers. see also Internet Top Guns Talk About Haves, Have-Nots (TechWeb).

• Newsletter Volume 1.3 (Bridges.org)
  Bridges.org has published a new edition of its monthly newsletter with current news about issues related to the international "digital divide". Showcase: UN Information Technology Service, plus News, Conferences and Links .

• USA - Falling through the net: toward digital inclusion (US Department of Commerce)
  A Report on Americans' Access to Technology Tools.

• USA - The Digital Divide and American Society (Gartner group)
  Summary of key findings from an analysis of surveys with 40,000 American households.

Issue no. 173 - 15 October 2000

• South Africa - Challenges To Bringing Internet Access To Remote Areas (First Monday)
  Overcoming Regulatory and Technological Challenges To Bring Internet Access To a Sparsely Populated, Remote Area: A Case Study by Ronel Smith

Issue no. 171 - 1 October 2000

• UK - Digital divide still gaping (Guardian)
  The digital divide is as alive as ever, according to figures released by the Office of National Statistics.

Issue no. 170 - 24 September 2000

• USA - Clinton Pursues Disabled Divide (Reuters)
  In his latest effort to bridge the digital divide in America, President Clinton will announce a series of actions by the government and private sector to improve access to the Internet for people with disabilities. Clinton Focuses on Disabled Access (New York Times).

Issue no. 169 - 16 September 2000

• Bridges.org - Newsletter Volume 1.2 published (Bridges.org)
  This non-profit organisation was launched in December 1999 to address the growing international digital divide and to promote the application of information technology to address economic and social issues in developing countries and emerging economies.

Issue no. 165 - 22 July 2000

• Adoption d'une charte pour réduire la "fracture numérique" (AFP)
  Les chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement du G8 ont adopté à Okinawa (Japon) un document fixant quelques grands principes pour encadrer la révolution internet et esquissant des pistes pour réduire la "fracture numérique" entre pays "branchés" et pays en développement. Pour favoriser la diffusion de ces technologies dans les pays pauvres, le G8 a décidé la création d'un Groupe d'Experts sur l'Accès aux Nouvelles Technologies (GEANT) ("digital opportunity taskforce" ou DOT force, en anglais). see also Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society | PDF and High-Tech Executives Urge Action on World's Digital Divide (New York Times).

Issue no. 163 - 9 July 2000

• UN forum seeks to close technology gap (Yahoo)
  Wealthy nations face huge obstacles to spreading technology in a world where half the population does not have a telephone and four of every 10 African adults cannot read, a UN forum said.

Issue no. 162 - 2 July 2000

• OECD chief warns against creation of digital divide (Silicon)
  Speaking at the Organisation for Economic Coordination and Development's (OECD) Forum 2000 in Paris, Ignazio Visco, chief economist at the OECD, has warned that the digital divide between information-rich countries and their technologically under-developed counterparts is set to widen.

Issue no. 161 - 25 June 2000

• UN Urged To Assure Internet Access (AP)
  By 2005, everyone in the world should have access to the Internet even if they have to walk for half a day to the nearest computer or cell phone, experts said in a report to the United Nations. The world's seven leading industrialized nations and Russia will review the report when the Group of 8 summit takes place in Okinawa, Japan, in July. voir aussi Internet: 500 millions de dollars pour connecter le tiers-monde

• USA - Money, not Race, Underlies Digital Divide (Newsbytes)
  Jupiter Communications released a report finding that the biggest Internet adoption gap in the United States exists between rich and poor, not between ethnic groups.

Issue no. 158 - 4 June 2000

• WEF fera des propositions contre l'inégalité numérique (AFP)
  Le World Economic Forum, organisateur chaque année des entretiens de Davos, remettra le 19 juillet au Premier ministre japonais les recommandations élaborées par le secteur privé pour lutter contre l'inégalité numérique ("digital divide"), un thème qui devrait figurer en bonne place sur l'agenda du Sommet des Huit à Okinawa.

Issue no. 151 - 8 April 2000

• Clinton Aims to Alleviate Digital Divide (AP)
  President Clinton called for bridging the gap between computer haves and have-nots, saying it is time to harness the Internet's "truly explosive" potential for helping those in poverty.

Issue no. 150 - 2 April 2000

• USA - Hi-Tech: Not Sexy Enough To Lure Poor Across Digital Divide? (Newsbytes)
  Lurking just beneath the surface of the debate on the so-called "digital divide" in America is the perception in many low-income and underserved communities that using computers and the Internet is just not considered hip enough.

Issue no. 149 - 26 March 2000

• Study Finds Gaps in Internet Content (New York Times)
  The past year has seen no shortage of studies that try to describe, explain and propose fixes for the digital divide, the gulf that lies between those who have computers and access to the Internet and those who do not. Two recent additions -- from the Children's Partnership, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, Calif., and from the Conference Board, a business research group in New York -- make valuable contributions to the growing canon. Digital Divide Involves Content, Not Access

Issue no. 148 - 18 March 2000

• USA - Digital Divide Involves Content, Not Access (Newsbytes)
  The so-called "digital divide" between technology "haves" and "have-nots" has less to do with access to technology and the Internet and more to do with a lack of relevant content crafted for underserved populations, a report by The Children's Partnership found.

Issue no. 147 - 11 March 2000

• UK - Blair's five-year internet pledge (BBC)
  Prime Minister Tony Blair has set out his strategy to tackle the threat of a "digital divide", with a pledge to get everyone in the UK online within five years.

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately once a week. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list. To be included on the mailing list, send a blank email to quicklinkshtml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (HTML) or quicklinks-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (Text)
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.