"Despite the technological progress that the Internet brings, one must be wary of the "digital divide" that it might creates"
This subtitle is written on a book that I saw yesterday behind the window of a small bookstore. It has attracted my attention while I was waiting at a bus stop in Vancouver downtown. There are no doubts that the Internet has made a big revolution in the world of knowledge and communication, but what about the new problems that Internet has brought to our lives? and how are we going to overcome it?
Let me first describe the term "digital divide" for you: it means that the world can be divided into people who do and people who don't have access to the Internet, whether it was a matter of how industrially is the nation developed, or how capable are the people to use it. However, the existence of the digital divide is not universally recognized, because they think it should soon disappear in any case, and the knowledge of computers will become less important as they get smarter and easier to use. Therefore, people will not need high-tech skills to access the web. But the main issue here is: when this is going to happen? and how can we overcome this problem while computers get smarter? same thing applies for all other drawbacks of this important technology.
One of the practical solutions was the OLPC Association. It stands for "One Laptop Per Child", it is a non-profit organization established in the U.S. to oversee the creation of cheap and affordable educational devises to be used in the developing world. Furthermore, one of the brave solutions is supporting the open source software industry, which is considered as a highly appreciated contribution from computer developers to the world. It is about developing high-performance mandatory software (e.g. operating systems, word processors, antivirus programs, etc.) and distribute it on the Internet free of charge in order to achieve the goal to overcome the digital divide. Also, it is good to know that open software are not only free to use, but also they are free to develop and improve by other programmers around the world, so it is a win-win strategy for everyone.
OLPC pilot Thailand - Ban Samkha - hiking, 2007
In conclusion, there are still a lot of obstacles ahead that we must deal with to spread the knowledge and limitate the abuse of the Internet in every place around the globe.
3 comments:
bassanm:
I found this very interesting, and as I told you in class, it was a coincidence that I happened to be reading an article on the same topic as well. i agree that there is still a long way to go before there is equity in terms of everyone having access to the web and all that it contains. I wonder if it will ever in fact be possible! What do you think? Do you have any ideas of how it might be possible to overcome the challenges that exist?
Hi Bassam. I really enjoyed
reading your article. "The digital divice." It's a truelly interesting topic. We are living in a totally new
world compare to the past. Therefore, we've got new questions and problems such as "the digital divide." In my opinion, OLPC's works are very valuable; however, we should consider about the mechanism that constantly has been making 'developing countries' and 'third worlds,' before we concentrate in the problems about sharing information. Unless, the information that they- people in developing countries- would get is going to be useless. Nevertheless, OLPC's efforts are still valuable: trying to make our world better and preparing the future. In sum. Modern technologies are developing faster than boundaries of our ethics. What we should do is not only accerrate the speed of tech, but deeply consider about what we have done.
Again, thanks for your great IDEAS and the article!!
Opps, In sum. ==> In sum,
Hope it's the only problem I
made. haha.
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