In Demystifying the Digital Divide Mark Warschauer writes that computer access is not a yes-or-no proposition, but like literacy, access depends on fitting into social systems and processes:
Literacy does not exist in a bipolar divide between those who absolutely can and cannot read. There are levels of literacy for functional, vocational, civic, literary and scholarly purposes. And people become literate not just through physical access to books but through education, communication, work connections, family support and assistance for social networks.
While not disputing the real disparity in access to computer technology, Warschauer argues that planting a computer in a community is not the same as making it useful:
In 1999, the munipal government of New Delhi .... launched an experiment to provide computer acccess to children in one of the city's poorest areas. Government official and representatives of the company set up an outdoor kiosk with several computer stations. The computers, with dial-up Internet access, were inside a locked booth, but the monitors, joysticks and buttons stuck out and were accessible.
.... Over the nine-month duration of the experiment, the youngsters did indeed learn how to manipulate the joystick and buttons. But without educational programs and with the content primarily in English rather than Hindi, they mostly did what you might expect: played games and used paint programs to draw.
By contrast, the government in another region, Madhya Pradesh, furnished a computer per village, networked them. Local entrepreneurs serviced the computers, giving access even to illiterate villagers. The entrepreneurs could charge a modest fee for access and offer computer training. The government also provided content for the network:
This content includes updated prices of popular crops at the district, regional and national markets, so that small farmers can decide whether to harvest their crop and where to sell it, without wasting a day traveling to the district capital for price checks. A complaint service lets villagers report local problems such as malfunctioning hand pumps or teachers failing to show up at schools.
In short, technology is not a solution, but a tool. Technology alone does not make the illiterate read, the poor well-off, and disparities disappear. But inserting technology thoughtfully based on what it can do (computers are good at sharing and storing information), what a technology requires to work properly (a person is best at introducing foreign technologies to other people), and what role it can fulfill (sharing market information quickly and efficiently) can improve lives.
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