The growing consensus is that in the New Economy access to
knowledge is critical for economic success. Unfortunately the
economic power of the Internet is not equally distributed.
Recent Internet usage statistics show that there are currently
429 million Internet users worldwide. This number is
actually small when considered in context. Of that 429 million,
41 percent are in North America; in fact, the United States has
more computers than the rest of the world combined!
These 429 million users actually represent only 6 percent of
the world’s entire population. The following breakdown shows
just how uneven Internet usage is across the world’s regions.
Of the online population:*
• 41 percent are in the United States and Canada
• 27 percent live in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
• 20 percent are located in Asia
• Only 4 percent are located in South America
The importance of Internet access will further divide the
world’s population into two main groups—those having access
and those who do not.
The poorest members of society suffer based on three primary
assumptions:
• The poor cannot afford to buy the necessary equipment needed
to be connected to the Internet.
• The infrastructure of developing countries may be so poor
that a significant portion of the population is not able to connect
even if equipment is available.
• The poor may not be literate enough to make use of equipment
and connectivity even when available.
The issue of the digital divide is beginning to evolve into a
drive towards realizing the digital dividend. The digital dividend
focuses on how to use technology to improve the economic
possibilities of global society.
Some of the key principles that will enable a digital dividend
include:
• Access vs. ownership. The assumption that users must purchase
equipment to have access to the Internet must be challenged.
In the New Economy the true economic benefit
comes from access to sources of knowledge and competence,
not from ownership of the access device.
A phenomenon is developing in several developing countries
where the trend is for individuals with equipment and
access to create a business around providing access. Local
entrepreneurs in India (mostly women) are operating payper-
use telephone services that provide traveling access to
remote and other underserved areas. With little more than a
mobile phone, these entrepreneurs have made access to the
telephone possible for a large number of urban poor and people
in remote villages. Many are now adding fax and PC services
to their portfolio of services.
• Rational trade offs. While many of us would opt for direct ownership
of a PC or cellular phone, trading currency for convenience,
the poor make an equally logical trade-off by exchanging
personal convenience for low-cost, no-investment access.
This approach may also make sense for those who are able
to purchase, because technology seems to advance at a rate
that quickly makes equipment obsolete!
In an age of ever-changing PC features, individual ownership
may not be the best choice after all.
• The connectivity leapfrog. Many developing countries have
never had far-reaching telephony systems due in part to the
cost of infrastructure needed to cover sparse or difficult terrain.
Without a legacy wireline system in place, users are
unable to access even simple communications. With infrastructure
costs less than half that of a wireline system, wireless
is becoming the telephony system of choice for many
regions that lack existing copper connections to homes and
businesses. The Wireless Internet will help overcome connectivity
issues in countries that lack adequate physical
wiring.
• Multimedia literacy. It’s well known that the Internet started
as largely an English-language medium to the exclusion of
many languages, especially those that use a non-Arabic
alphabet. The tide is slowly turning and more Web sites are
publishing content in local languages.
The move towards multimedia will also help alleviate this
issue for those who are not able to read text but can communicate
verbally and visually. Many cultures have unique
dialects that are difficult and costly to translate into text but
that can be published at lower cost in a voice format.
Multimedia will enable communication to take place in ways
that accommodate the needs of the user by integrating text,
audio, and video in ways that the individual user can utilize. 217