Transcript Access and Digital Divide

Access and Digital Divide
COM 300
2 & 4 March 2009
Areas of Discussion This Week
• Digital Divide
▫ Broadband
▫ Cellular
▫ Literacy
• Public Space
• Access and Accessibility
Digital Divide, Defined
•The gap between those who
have access to or who can
benefit from technology and
those who cannot
Digital Divide:
More Than Stereotype
Examples:
▫ US: Rural/Urban broadband access
▫ US: “poor” v “rich” (access)
▫ And yet … half of the world’s population has
never made a telephone call (ITU)
Broadband: Speeds
• US speeds lag the world:
▫ DSL averages half a megabit per second
▫ Cable averages 1.5 megabits per second
• Canada: 5-10 megabits per second
• Asia and Europe: 100 megabits per second
Broadband Access: US Definition
• FCC defines “broadband access” by zip code
▫ If there is one subscriber in a 5-digit zip code, the
FCC assumes that everyone in the zip code has
access
▫ If there are two providers, FCC assumes
competition -- even though generally people have
either DSL or cable access
• Result? Numbers are over-stated
Broadband: US Global Position
• Denmark leads the G7 group of industrialized
countries in broadband penetration per 100
people (OECD)
▫ 2001: US ranked 4th in the 30 OECD nations
▫ 2008: US ranked 15th
• Pew: “our broadband access tends to be slower and
less capable than that of a number of other nations,
but the lack of solid data from the federal government
makes this hard to quantify.” (InfoWeek)
Broadband: Rural/Urban Divide
• The problem: population density
▫ 25% population; 75% land mass
• We faced this problem with electricity and the
telephone: the result was rural electric and
telephone cooperatives, given gov’t loans (all
were re-paid)
• WiMax may be the “fix”
Mobile: US Global Position
• New York Times columnist Thomas L.
Friedman, Aug 2005: (tongue-in-check)
considering a run for President, promised that
after four years, our cell phone service would be
at least as good as Ghana's, and if elected for a
second term, as good as Japan’s.
Mobile: US Technology
• In Europe, gov’t standardized on GSM
• In US, gov’t was “hands off”, let the market
decide
▫ Now transitioning to GSM (AT&T/Cingular)
▫ Verizon: CDMA
Mobile: The Global Picture
• GSM is the fastest growing communications
technology of all time (cite)
▫ 85% of the global market
▫ >25% of the global population
Mobile: Connecting The World
• Mobile Internet (which definition?):
▫ Browsing Internet from mobile device
▫ Accessing Internet from a mobile network
• Taiwan: more mobile phones than people!
▫ Leapfrog technology (wireless v wired)
• Less power required
Mobile: Asia
• "We want to make the mobile phone a Swiss Army
knife that can do anything for you," China Mobile
chief executive officer Wang Jianzhou to
BusinessWeek.
• Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong are the leaders in mobile convergence
• Contributing cultural issues:
▫ Commuting patterns
▫ Minimal private spaces
▫ Low per capita PC ownership
Mobile: Convergence
• US lags the world due to competing “standards”
for how the data (voice) is transmitted; has led
to slower adoption
• Mobile internet adoption is also impeded by
expensive and slow data plans
Global Literacy
(1/3)
• Another issue: literacy
▫ Many definitions -- makes it difficult to compare
data
• UN Data, literacy rate,15-24 year olds
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Afghanistan, 34%
Congo, 70.4%
Ethiopia, 31.2%
Liberia, 67.4%
Yemen, 75.2%
Global Literacy
(2/3)
• United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012)
▫ 2000: one in five adults aged 15+ was illiterate
 Women: two out of three illiterate adults.
▫ 2000: about 70 per cent of the world’s illiterate
adults lived in three regions: Sub-Saharan Africa,
South and West Asia, and the Arab States / North
Africa
Global Literacy
(3/3)
• For internet access to be beneficial, literacy is a
necessary condition
• This is where TV has an “advantage” in oral
cultures
▫ But TV promotes consumerism and requires
media literacy skills to effectively decode
commercial messages
• The other “oral” tech: telephony
The Digital Divide Is …
• … more complex than developed world versus
developing world
• How does this relate, specifically, to technology
& society?
▫ One answer: public space
Public Space: A Form of Access
• “From the time that humans first defined private
spaces, public spaces have served as places where
people have come together to exchange ideas. From
the ancient Greek's Agora to the Middle Ages'
Commons to early 20th century American urban
streets and parks, public spaces have been centers
for free speech and public discourse.”
 Howard Besser, UCLA, 2001
Public Space and Free Speech
• “[T]he First Amendment affords the public access to
discussion, debate, and the dissemination of
information and ideas... the right to receive
information is an inherent corollary of the rights of free
speech and press that are explicitly guaranteed by the
Constitution... the right to receive ideas is a necessary
predicate to the recipient's meaningful exercise of his
own rights of speech, press, and political freedom."
▫
Supreme Court, 1978, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
Public Space is Important
• Public space provides the potential for the gathering of
people who might not otherwise come in contact with
one another in their daily lives. In this way public space
is crucial to the public sphere (Jacobs, 1999)
• In public space, action gains publicity because it is
visible to the public (Mattson, 1999; Putnam, 2000)
• Cyberspace has been called a surrogate public space
(Gumpert & Drucker, 1992, 1998) or the "electronic
agora" (Rheingold 1993, 14).
Public Space Nurtures Diversity
• Open to everyone
▫ No monetary barrier, no physical barrier (ADA),
no “color” barrier (desegregation)
• Examples: city streets, parks, public
transportation, public buildings
• Others?
Public Space and The Commons
Copyright: an evolving standard
▫ A 1709 law set copyright for 14 years
▫ Prior to 1976, copyright was granted for 28 years and renewable for
another 28 years for a total of 56 years
▫ The 1976 Copyright Act boosted the term to 75 years
▫ The 1998 Sonny Bono Term Extension Act extended the copyright
to 95 years for corporations and 70 years after death for
individuals
 Mickey would have passed into public domain in 2003 had this bill
not been passed
 Walt Disney would not have been able to use Mickey Mouse as an
iconic image if today’s copyright laws had been in force in 1928
▫ 10x10 rests on fair use; so does Google News
“Public Spaces” in Cyberspace
• Public (free) WiFi in the US
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Spokane
Marymoor Park
New York Parks, Google in NY/SF
Coffee shops in Seattle
Free WiFi Directory
• What should local government role be in creating
WiFi networks within its borders?
Airwaves As Public Space
• Radio and TV licenses predicated on broadcasting that
serves the “public interest”
• What happens to “public interest” regulation when
“everyone” watches “cable TV,” a private space, or
listens to “for fee” radio? What impact might this have
on “internet TV”?
Access and Accessibility
• There’s “access” and then there’s “accessibility”
▫ Do we have access to a technology? AND Does the
technology allow everyone access (accessibility)?
▫ Whose responsibility is it to help make the
internet more accessible to all?
 Government, Industry, Us?
Access: Application Neutral
(1/2)
• Core Internet Value
▫ “Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with
Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be
yearning for the bad old days, before the Web,
when you had very little chance of reading a
document written on another computer, another
word processor, or another network.”
Tim Berners-Lee
Access: Application Neutral
(2/2)
• Competing web technologies
▫ Windows Media Player, Quicktime, Real
▫ Flash as mediator?
• Competing cellular technologies
▫ US v Rest of the world: Verizon v AT&T/Cingular
• Competing IM technologies
• Reminder: competing technologies slows
consumer adoption rates
Access : Network Neutrality
(1/4)
• In the US, network neutrality is hot “access”
topic
• Better described as “network discrimination”
▫ Telephone network operators cannot discriminate
▫ Corporations are fighting over “the last mile” to
our homes
Access : Network Neutrality
(2/4)
• Feb 2006: AOL and Yahoo proposed fee to
ensure e-mail delivery (IHT, 6 Feb 2006)
▫ $0.025 to $0.01 per e-mail
▫ Will not be subject to existing user spam filters
▫ A benefit for businesses (Ascribe, 2 Feb 2006)
• AT&T and others proposed “access-tiering”
(two-tier Internet) (Red Herring, 31 Jan 2006)
▫ Prioritize packets? Streaming video is the rationale
Access : Network Neutrality
(3/4)
• There is something wrong with network owners saying
“we’ll guarantee fast video service from NBC on your
broadband account.” And there is something especially
wrong with network owners telling content or service
providers that they can’t access a meaningful broadband
network unless they pay an access tax.
• I don’t mean “wrong” in the sense of immoral, or even
unfair. My argument is not about the social justice of
Internet access. I mean “wrong” in the sense that such a
policy will inevitably weaken application competition on
the Internet, and that in turn will weaken Internet growth.
▫ Testimony, Lawrence Lessig, Stanford, Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee, 7 February 2006
Access : Network Neutrality
(4/4)
• HR 5353: Internet Freedom Preservation Act of
2008
▫ Lays out four core principles and directs the FCC to
investigate violations
• Learn more and then contact your Congressman
▫ Google statement
▫ SaveTheInternet.com
▫ ItsOurNet.org
Summary
• Digital divide is larger than developed versus
developing world
• There are issues of accessibility as well as access
• In the US, “network neutrality” is a “hot” access
issue, politically and economically
Discussion
•
Pick one question. Think/write/share/turn-in
1. You’re leader in a developing country. Where
should you invest limited resources? Education,
internet access, clean water, reliable electricity,
good roads? Why?
2. You’re leader in rural American town. Should
you develop your own broadband network or
rely on a telecomm? Why?