{"id":245,"date":"2003-01-20T18:15:05","date_gmt":"2003-01-20T16:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.multiplicity.dk\/?p=245"},"modified":"2003-01-20T18:15:05","modified_gmt":"2003-01-20T16:15:05","slug":"the-digital-divide-misnomer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/01\/20\/the-digital-divide-misnomer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Digital Divide: misnomer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This entry over at the Riptari Filter:
\nRiptari Filter: The Search for life on Mars<\/a>
\nMakes some interesting points, comparing “bridging the digital divide” with “Searching for life on Mars”.
\nEthan made similar points in friday’s lecture at Harvard. Namely that the goal of “Universal Access” which has been touted broadly in development circles, is not only naive in the extreme, but is also counter-productive. It sets impossible goals, and takes focus away from real problems with real solutions. <\/p>\n

A village that get’s screwed by middle-men when selling their crop is a real problem, and a communication system that gives them access to market information is a real solution. <\/p>\n

The lack of access to good tertiary education in Africa is a real problem, and an African Virtual University<\/a> is one possible answer.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the fact that not everyone in the world has Internet access is not a real problem. It may be a symptom of some larger problem, but in and of itself it is not the issue.<\/p>\n

I’ve never liked the term “Digital Divide”, but even more importantly, i’ve never liked the tendency to focus always on the “Big Picture”. <\/p>\n

Peter Thomas, is of course correct in his analysis that getting Internet access to everyone in the world is a hopeless goal, unrealistic and not even necessarily desirable. Looking at the world as a massive unit is bound to be a problem. I’m interested in specific projects. In individual cases in which there is a need for ICT’s on the ground, and in which I can provide a better solution than most other people.<\/p>\n

In that single situation where I can help provide a cheaper, better connectivity solution than might be available in the local market. In that one situation I might be able to save a bit of money in a specific project. Money that can then be put towards educating the users, or improving the local language applications. It may be a stretch, but not nearly as much as the whole “Universal Access” shindig.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase a scene from “The Matrix”<\/p>\n

Boy: Do not try and mend the Big Picture. That’s impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
\nNeo: What truth?
\nBoy: There is no Big Picture.
\nNeo: There is no Big Picture?
\nBoy: Then you’ll see that it is not the Big Picture that mends, it is only yourself.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry over at the Riptari Filter: Riptari Filter: The Search for life on Mars Makes some interesting points, comparing “bridging the digital divide” with “Searching for life on Mars”. Ethan made similar points in friday’s lecture at Harvard. Namely that the goal of “Universal Access” which has been touted broadly in development circles, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Digital Divide: misnomer • krag.be<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/01\/20\/the-digital-divide-misnomer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Digital Divide: misnomer • krag.be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This entry over at the Riptari Filter: Riptari Filter: The Search for life on Mars Makes some interesting points, comparing “bridging the digital divide” with “Searching for life on Mars”. Ethan made similar points in friday’s lecture at Harvard. 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Or more precisely that the Digital Divide is merely the results of a financial divide, the point being that even in real terms internet access charges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/01\/27\/universal-access-more-from-the-riptari-filter\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":1},"title":"Universal Access\u2026 More from the Riptari Filter","date":"27\/01\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"riptari filter: Facing Kenny's Figure What we really ought to be doing, all of us who are taking an interest in the internet's expansion, is not only to follow Mr. Kelly's example by continuing to openly, frequently criticize the call for universal access, but more importantly we should start creating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":255,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/01\/27\/difficult-dilemma-in-digital-development\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":2},"title":"Difficult Dilemma in Digital Development","date":"27\/01\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, these last days, there's been quite some trackback activity between this blog, and Peter Thomas' riptari filter. i'm tying to absorb his pov as fast as possible. he just commented on a recent post of mine. Commenting on this article at ICT Update: Which tacitly states the paradox we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":263,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/01\/31\/more-povs-on-kennys-article\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":3},"title":"More POVs on Kenny\u2019s article","date":"31\/01\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago, I commented on an article by Dr. Kenny in Foreign Policy. David Brake @ Blog.org adds his comments [via riptari] ...and the fact is that money for improving telecommunications infrastructure seldom comes from the same sources as money for primary education etc. Most importantly, while subsidising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/13\/more-universal-access\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":4},"title":"more universal access","date":"13\/02\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Universal Internet access: does it make sense? a few additional, worthwhile comments to the Charles Kenny debate on Universal access that I've posted about here and here. This time from the Development Gateway. It's not that this isn't a worthwhile debate, just that everyone seems to agree that Universal Access\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/07\/the-tiger-walks-tonight\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":5},"title":"The Tiger walks tonight\u2026","date":"07\/02\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to riptari for this analogy related to giving Internet to people who don't want it Tigers eat meat, so if you talk loudly and repeatedly about how great it is that you're offering them bigger and bigger mountains of spinach salad every day, I think your behavior deserves some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}