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Interesting data on how and why British politicians are slow in the use of social media for political campaigning. They still trust other more traditional channels. Interesting data: Europeans are lagging behind American policy makers in their use of Twitter and other means of digital communication. Might the higher age average of European citizens have something to do with it?

Recent press release from the European Union Digital Agenda to improve Europe's digital elements.

This is an interesting article about the presence of a digital divide in the recent political unrest in Thailand.\n\nI used this article as the basis for my fourth blog entry in terms of the importance of access to media when it comes to the efficacy of political action - it is hard to gain popular support for a movement when the use of twitter is more pervasive than broadcasts through old media like the radio.

The author puts forward that giving access to computer to children from developing countries is a remarkable opportunity for them but could alsobe a threat as they are not being familiarised with the dangers of the Internet.

Interesting article applicable to the issues with the digital divide. Most notable is the way that many developing countries are 'skipping' over technology-steps: ie, going straight to mobiles without any landline infrastructure or going straight to tablet computers without ever having desktops.

Information about the Digital Economy Bill provided by the UK Parliament. Includes a summary of the bill, its progress, latest news and the link to the full bill.

The "Digital Economy Bill" has been passed by the Lords and is now expected to be rushed through the Commons before the general elections. Despite criticism by the UK's major telecommunication providers and global internet giants like Google, the government said it was still committed to giving courts the power to block websites which are infringing copyright. The bill is mainly aiming to tackle internet privacy. Some of it's paragraphs however could lead to internet censorship.

We tend to think of the digital divide in geographical terms (developed vs developing nations). But what does it mean for citizens of developed nations to be on the wrong side of this divide? This article gives a brief insight into the subject in Britain.

The UK Government are proposing to introduce a Digital Economy Bill.  The owners of copyright material will be able to pursue individuals who are sharing their content and take legal recourse.  Persistent offenders can eventually be blocked by their ISP. "Persistent" offenders will have received 50 notices before the Government can request that the ISP block their access to the internet. Sites that host material / content that breaches the bill will be issued with a series of take down notices. This impacts all sites - not just those whose servers are based in the UK.  If the site does not comply with the take down notice it will be possible for the site to be blocked within the UK. 

Google wants to install Google Fiber in some small US cities. These Googlevilles, although experimental and in a small scale, could foreshadow some potential repercussions of the digital divide. Would you like to live in Googleville?

A 'Digital Economy Bill' was passed by the House of Lords recently, and this article look at its implications for internet users whose freedom to share files will be punishable by a severing of their internet connection.

Gary Kim is referring to a survey made by e-marketer to point out that in the US the disparities in Internet usage between "Asians", "Hispanics", "Afro americans" and "white americans" will have almost disappeared, mostly because of the expansion of mobile phones giving access to Internet.

This is my second blog entry on the topic of the 'digital divide'. I would have posted it earlier but I haven't been able to access wordpress.com from home. There is also an introductory post from a few weeks ago.

A comprehensive study conducted by the Pew Center for Research in the States looks at one of the demographics that experience the 'digital divide' - people with a chronic illness. The results indicate that although people with chronic diseases are less likely to have access to the internet, those that do use it productively to contribute to the online bank of knowledge about health-realated topics, as well as forming supportive online communities.

thanks Tiana, I'm actually covering a related topic in my DRP journal article. This is really helpful.

The digital divide is't expressed only in terms of rural and urbans areas, or developed or not countries, a UK study reveals that children in UK are stille greatly deprived of broadband Internet access.

The National Broadband Plan has to be thought in terms of social progress, and keep in mind the true nature of the open Internet. David Stephen argues in favor of the National Broadband Plan but reminds that the FCC should not be focused in regulating only.

According to this article "word of mouth has become word of web." People are using digital technology to communicate important information such as social gatherings and recommendations about things such as new recipes - things that used to be transferred through offline word of mouth. The implication is that people without an online presence miss out, and the response of the Canadian (as well as the Australian) government is to inject millions of dollars into decreasing the 'digital divide' to encourage social participation through increased digital literacy.

After the class last night, I kept having a thoght that maybe our whole society structure is changing bcuase of the internet, the accessibility to the Internet. Money, education, perhaps are the main critaria to structure the society anymore.

Interesting article touching on issues of the digital divide, and how technology can affect and help development. The article also discusses the effect that technology, particularly mobiles, is having on politics in India - particularly on enfranchising and mobilising the lower castes.

Is the Internet free? Certainly not, just the fix pricing gives the virtual buffet of digital content that seemly and resonablly free to us, but is it really? Files sharing has reached the point that entertainment workers saying, enough is enough and they will do whatever it takes to ease this trend. Is our free culture of the Internet about to over though? Not quite, after years of habits enjoying content freely, it's not a over night change for people to accept to be charged.

This is my final blog entry on the digital divide. It basically sums up my thoughts about the topic and looks at a recent initiative by the UN that will hopefully speed up the process of achieving the goal of global internet access by 2015.