Mozzeenet

A new European Union (EU) report has been released on a similar topic as my previous post. An article on the EU website titled ‘Women and the elderly are crossing the digital divide, but the poor still lag behind, says new EU report‘ summarises the findings of the report showing that there has been increased access to information technology by women and over-55s but two of the main contributors to the digital divide continue to be lack of education and low income.

The paradox is that access to information eg on the Internet can assist people to escape poverty and improve the quality of their lives but it is education which enables people to reap the benefits of what the Internet can offer. As the article points out, using the Internet mostly requires high literacy (and often specifically English literacy). I discussed this concept previously in Local Languages: Webbed World Wide?

The ease and ability of seniors in our society to use ICTs to access information and complete tasks is a specific topic area within the digital divide debate and some of my thoughts on this were sparked by the release of a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation last week: ‘Online Health Information Poised to Become Important Resource For Seniors, But Not There Yet - Digital Divide Puts Many Seniors At Disadvantage‘.

My parents behaviour in this realm correlates with the statistics from the report, gathered in the US, which show that more people aged 50-64 years (my parents’ age bracket) have gone online and use email than citizens 65+ years old. Both Mum and Dad make full use of the internet and email for staying in touch, finding information, booking events, banking and pursuing interests. Dad regularly spends up to 4 hours a day on a forum for owners of the ZR7 Kawasaki motorcycle sharing maintenance advice, travel stories and photos with other enthusiasts around the world. Mum emails friends and family with the latest news, forwards jokes and photos, writes comments on my blog and does her banking online. I am quite impressed with the way they have been willing to learn new methods and take advantage of the benefits. Read more »

Andy Carvin’s article The Tsunami as a Wake-Up Call to Bridging the Digital Divide on the Digital Divide Network is inspiring for people like me who are interested in the role of IT in improving people’s lives especially for people who are disadvantaged. It’s really interesting to read his example of how technology played a part in saving lives in the horrific tsunami disaster affecting hundreds of thousands of people across Asia and Africa. He describes a telecentre in India where the staff were notified of the impending tidal wave and were able to immediately utilise the strong community and public address system which had been developed to alert local villagers. Read more »