This was another source used for my blog entry on aspects of the digital divide in the situation in Thailand. This gave a some context to my discussion and clarified the details of the damage done to major cities.

The initial announcement last year about the federal government's proposal of a National Broadband Network was met with a lot of scepticism. I think that despite its flaws, the network seems quite necessary considering the inequality of access experienced by thousands of Australians due to the broad geographical scope of the country.

This is a source for one of my previous blog posts that I haven't yet bookmarked on Diigo. It outlines the Digital Education Revolution that will be implemented by the Department of Education as a response to the policy imperative of decreasing the digital divide in the younger generation of Australians.

This is an article I bookmarked a few weeks ago but neglected to post to Diigo. I was planning to focus on Haiti as the subject for a blog entry but didn't follow through. Regardless, this article outlines the plan by broadcasters to gain money through digital sales of a telethon intended to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The main point of the article is not to look at the digital divide between Haiti and the nations funding relief efforts, as I initially thought. It looks at the telethon as a test run to figure out how to monetize live internet streaming and mobile downloads of television content.

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.

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.

This is my third blog entry on the theme of the Digital Divide. I've looked at the situation in Thailand in terms of the class divide, political divide, and digital divide that characterise the conflict.

There has been some controversy about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments in an online chat from 2006 that surfaced recently. He told a friend that Facebook users were dumb for trusting him and submitting private, personal information on his then-fledgling website. An initiative by four young programmers to counteract the negative effects that Facebook has had on privacy and the ability of users to control the data they put online is Diaspora. It is a decentralised, open source social network that wants to compete with centralised social networks that allow "spying for free". It will be interesting to see whether the initiative really takes off as a viable alternative to Facebook.

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.

My most recent blog entry, looking at the implications of the increasing digital literacy among younger generations.

This looks at the new atmosphere of sharing all the mundane details about our lives, facilitated by sites such as Blippy, which broadcasts details about shopping habits, and Foursquare, that uses GPS to alert contacts to your location. A fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union said, "People are not necessarily thinking about how long this information will stick around, or how it could be used and exploited by marketers." Concerns are also raised about potential identity theft and whether accessing every scrap of data left behind by users is actually valuable.

The founder and Chief Executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced at a recent conference that Facebook's Open Graph project will soon enable an even greater degree of personalisation as people surf the net. I think this probably has implications for user experience, in terms of viewing popular sites through the prism of social networking - and it gives sites more authority to store data about individuals. Because Facebook seems to be so pervasive nowadays, it seems like we won't have much say in the matter...

Allison, that's a great point, I've tried to quit using the site but I stop when I realise that I won't know about upcoming social events - unfortunately its the primary means of communication used by some friends!

Apparently the showdown between Adobe and Apple might result in a lawsuit in the weeks to come. Adobe has 95% Web browser market penetration, whilst apparently Apple has a monopoly on mobile applications, to the tune of 99.4% of downloads. It seems like some sort of synergy must be reached between the two companies.

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.

Extensive report about the potential challenges to be faced by publishers as they adapt to the predicted 'e-book revolution'

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.

This BBC article is based on a extensive survey conducted over 26 countries about people's attitudes towards internet access. Apparently it is now considered a fundamental human right, along with access to basic infrastructure like roads and water.

The digital divide is being decreased - but there are still widespread inequalities. Within one continent there are countries with radically different percentages of citizens online. There are great benefits from once isolated communities in terms of sharing their heritage online, as well as accessing healthcare.

Article from today's Sydney Morning Herald about the settlement of a lawsuit related to a program called Beacon. I think its important that Facebook is scrutinised regularly, particularly in relation to its quite invasive policies when it comes to collecting data about its users for marketing purposes.