huridocs-tech Bridging the digital divide (1)

[From the BBC Online Network; originally posted on the s-asia-it@apnic.net
listserv.]


Bridging the digital divide

The Internet has ushered in the greatest period of wealth creation in
history. It's rocked the way we deliver and receive information and
the way we do business.

And so, for many, it is easy to accept euphoric claims - like those
of Vice President Al Gore - that the Internet is also bringing about
a brave new world replete with an "electronic agora" and "online
democracy".

It's not. More than 80% of people in the world have never even heard
a dial tone, let alone surfed the Web. And the gap between the
information haves and have-nots is widening.

In a speech this week at Telecom 99 in Geneva, Switzerland, UN
Secretary General Kofi Anan warned of the danger of excluding the
world's poor from the information revolution.

"People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and
drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications
services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations,
and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them," he
said.

In this special report, BBC News Online probes the growing gap
between the information rich and information poor: How big is it? Why
is it so hard to close? And how are individuals and communities
around the globe trying to bridge the digital divide?


Case studies
Burkina Faso 	<URL>
Mongolia 		<URL>
Morocco 		<URL>
United States 	<URL>


<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/10/99/information
_rich_information_poor/newsid_466000/466651.stm>



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