Transcript Globalization Bytes: Exploring the “Digital Divide” and the “Global Technological Revolution” Dr. Robert J.

Globalization Bytes:
Exploring the “Digital Divide”
and the “Global Technological
Revolution”
Dr. Robert J. Beck
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Overview
What is the “global technological
revolution?”
What is the “digital divide?”
How have international institutions
responded to the digital divide?
BB’s “3 B’s”
Bits
Boxes
Bandwidth
The Global Technological
Revolution
Whence?
2 exemplary “laws”
Some manifestations of those “laws”
5 effects
The Global Technological
Revolution - Whence?
Major advances in “information and
communications technologies”
(“ICT”)
Digital storage and processing of
information (information)
Satellite and optical fiber transmission of
information (communications)
Two Exemplary “Laws”
Moore’s law predicts the doubling of
computing power every 18–24 months
Gilder’s law predicts the doubling of
communications power every six
months
Pentium Pro
10,000,000
(5.5 m transistors)
Pentium
486
1,000,000
(3.1 m)
386
286
100,000
Motorola 68000
Sun SPARC
Intel 8086
10,000
Intel 8080
Intel 4004
1,000
(2,300 transistors)
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
Some Manifestations …
In 2001 more information can be sent
over a single cable in a second than in
1997 was sent over the entire internet
in a month.
Some Manifestations …
The cost of transmitting a trillion bits of
information from Boston to Los Angeles
has fallen from $150,000 in 1970 to 12
cents today.
Some Manifestations …
A three-minute
phone call from New
York to London that
in 1930 cost more
than $300 (in
today’s prices) costs
less than 20 cents
today.
Cost of a three-minute telephone call
New York - London (1990 dollars)
250
200
150
100
50
0
1930
1950
1970
1990
Some Manifestations …
E-mailing a 40-page document from
Chile to Kenya costs less than 10 cents,
faxing it about $10, sending it by courier
$50.
Cost of information processing
(100 = $1 per instruction per second)
100
IBM mainframe
10000
Digital VAX
10
1
Cray 1
1000
Sun Micro
100
IBM PC
45 M bit/s
90/135 M bit/s
400 M bit/s
1.2/1.7 G bit/s
2.5 G bit/s
10 G bit/s
40 G bit/s
10
0.1
0.01
1975 1980 1985
Optical Fiber
Transmission cost per
M bit/s x km (relative)
1
Pentium
1990 1995
0.1
Source: AT&T
1980
1990
2000
Effect 1: Businesses and Markets
Transformed
In 1999 in Costa
Rica, Malaysia and
Singapore, hightech exports
exceeded 40% of
the total
Effect 2: Learning and
Knowledge-sharing
Revolutionized
From 1995–97, scientists in the United
States co-authored articles with
scientists from 173 other countries;
Scientists in Brazil with 114, in Kenya
with 81, in Algeria 59.
Learning and Knowledge-sharing
Revolutionized
The six largest internet-based
distance-learning universities in the
world are located in developing countries
-- Turkey, Indonesia, China, India,
Thailand and Korea
Effect 3: Global Information
Flows
Effect 4: Citizens and
Communities Empowered in
Novel Ways
Governance redefined
Globalization of civil society
Citizens and Communities
Empowered in Novel Ways
The Philippines: electronic advocacy
network set up in response to
impeachment trial
Effect 5: Significant Wealth and
Economic Growth Created
“E-commerce,” business conducted over
the Internet, totaled $45 billion as
recently as 1998 and an estimate in
January 2000 projected it could explode
to over $7 trillion as early as 2004.
What is The “Digital Divide?”
Between countries – the global
digital divide
Between groups of people within
countries - the domestic digital divide
The Digital Divide: Phones and
Electricity
2 billion people lack access
to reliable electricity
As much as 80% of the
world's population has never
made a phone call
The Digital Divide: Phones and
Electricity
More telephones in New
York City than in all of
rural Asia
In the entire continent of
Africa, there are a mere
14 million phone lines -fewer than in either
Manhattan or Tokyo.
The Digital Divide: Internet
Accounts and Hosts
More Internet accounts in London than
all of Africa
One in two Americans is online,
compared with only one in 250
Africans.
The Digital Divide: Internet
Accounts and Hosts
Of all the Internet users worldwide, 60
per cent reside in North America, where
a mere five per cent of the world's
population reside
Wealthy nations comprise some 16 per
cent of the world's population, but
command 90 per cent of Internet host
computers.
The Digital Divide: PCs
Developed states:
Globally:
South Asia:
Sub-Saharan Africa:
311.2 per 1,000
70.6 PCs per 1,000
2.9 per 1,000
0.75 per 1,000
Bandwidth and Speed
The vast capacity of the Internet is
distributed highly unevenly throughout the
world.
By late 2000 the bulk of Internet connectivity
linked the US with Europe (56 Gbps) and, to
a lesser extent, the US with the Asia-Pacific
region (18 Gbps).
Africa had extremely little bandwidth reaching
Europe (0.2 Gbps) and the USA (0.5 Gbps)
The Digital Divide: Costs
Internet access costs (as a percentage
of average monthly income)
US: 1 to 2 percent
Uganda: over 100 percent
Bangladesh: 191 percent
The Digital Divide: Costs
Access costs (ISP, and telephone call
costs) are almost four times as
expensive in the Czech Republic and
Hungary as in the United States
In Bangladesh a computer costs the
equivalent of eight years average pay
Technical Training
McConnell International "E-Business
report”
Europe (including Eastern Europe) and
Latin America rated well
Middle East and Africa needed to
significantly develop their human capital
Asia had a mixed scorecard
International Institutional
Responses
infoDev
SDNP
DOI
DOT Force
infoDev
The Information for Development
Program (infoDev)
Global program managed by the World
Bank
infoDev
Seeks to help developing economies
fully benefit from modern information
systems
Program Manager, Bruno Lanvin, is a
senior World Bank official
SDNP
Sustainable Development
Networking Programme of the UNDP
Seeks to assist developing countries in
acquiring the capacity to access and to
contribute to solutions for sustainable
development via the medium of
information and communication
technologies
SDNP
Assistance in National IT Policy
Formulation
IT Project Development, Monitoring,
and Evaluation
Consultancy Assistance
Connectivity, Website Hosting &
Mirroring
DOI
The Digital Opportunity Initiative
A public/private partnership of
Accenture
The Markle Foundation
UN Development Program
DOI
Launched at the G-8 Okinawa
summit
Seeks to identify the roles that
information and communication
technologies can play in fostering
sustainable economic development and
enhancing social equity
DOT Force
The “Digital Opportunity Task” Force
Established pursuant to the “Okinawa Charter
on the Global Information Society” drafted at
the G-8s’ Okinawa Summit
43 members from public, private and not-forprofit sectors and including participants from
developed and developing countries
DOT Force
The United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) and the World
Bank provide the Secretariat for
the Task Force.
DOT Force
Met in 3 plenaries – in Tokyo (11/00),
Cape Town (3/01), and Sienna (4/01)
Published “Digital Opportunities for All”
in May, 2001.
Action Pan secured G-8 endorsement in
Genoa (July 2001)
Resource Page
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjb3v/digitaldivide.html