Eliminating Digital Divides

Thomas Scovell’s Blog » Blog Archive » Digital Divide

Biting on web 2.0 as the province of nothing but self-obsessed “white 20-something males” is… probably totally fair. In some senses. At least they’re (we’re?) the ones hyping it for the sake of it.

But for all their “I don’t buy CDs, I heart itunes music store” rhetoric I find most of this community are only barely “new media” in their day-to-day lives.

Coming back to some ideas I drew out in a recent presentation… its younger people, and often those in lower socio-economic communities that are really acting-out new media wise. Which is great. Because we hear so much about the “digital divide” and how the priveleged are the ones with the access to and knowledge about technology.

I like what he's saying here, for a couple of reasons.

First I think that it takes clarifications like this to see the real picture and, hopefully, devise a real solution. There are people who are already doing technologically savvy things with low tech; what happens when they manipulate the things which we now consider new or exciting? It generally seems that in their hands technology takes a more practical bent. I'm thinking of the adoption of text messaging long before it caught on in more developed parts, as well as Jan Chipchase's research on "Sente" in Uganda.

If anything, I think that internet 2.0 is about unwalled gardens; an environment where people groups cultivate and create but where linking one group to another becomes easy and even expected for collective progress. People stepping up to the plate with the same tools as everyone else--and seeing what direction they'll run with it.

Which brings an important concept to the surface: should we be bringing them to speed or starting them out hard and fast? I think this is where the digital divide persists and perhaps thrives. Noting it a while back, when will technology meet a culture where it is to develop without a primer, a starter course, a "first computer"--if we see potential, why not immerse them in the areas that need new thought rather than providing them well-traveled methods?

As noted in the link above, I think this is the only caveat--though a big one--I have with the OLPC concept. The digital divide will never disappear if we insist on hammering out deep roads to information.

Would it have not been better if we asked every proposed area what they would need and design it for their own people and situation? If the OLPC looked completely different in every region because of local application? I'm channeling AfH here, wondering what Cameron's take on the project would be.