Wiki source code of Assignment 2 - Starbird - Digital Divide

Last modified by Hal Eden on 2010/08/20 11:06
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 1: #info('Very nice work! Nice integration of facts and opinions.')
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 3: *Digital Divide:*
 4: Computers, along with the vast resources of the Internet, have become powerful tools for people all over the world. They provide access to huge information stores, educational resources, communication services, and the expanding global economy. Among other things, users can learn vocational skills, sell products to distant users, or find important healthcare information online. Computer literacy and Internet access have the potential of raising an individual's financial earning power along with his or her overall quality of life.
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 6: Unfortunately, access to these powerful tools is not universal. Some people and groups of people face significant barriers to computer and Internet use. These barriers can be financial, geographical, and cultural. Poor people or communities may have trouble getting their hands on the necessary computer equipment as well as the training to utilize it. Even with the basic equipment, remote communities face technological barriers to Internet access. Cultural and linguistic differences make computer interfaces hard or impossible to use for people for whom the system was not designed. Cognitive differences between users create a similar challenge. Computers may be taboo in certain communities of subsections of communities as well. Along these lines, female gender is often a significant barrier. 
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 8: This inequality of access is often called the digital divide. These new technologies have the potential to aggravate existing inequalities between cultures and within cultures. While those with the financial/educational resources and geographical/cultural fortune of being able to use a computer can take advantage of its capabilities to improve their personal or financial situations, those without access cannot. This dynamic serves to enhance the privilege of the privileged, while holding those less fortunate into relatively lower social and financial situations. Unfortunately, through the digital divide, technology can expand the gap between the standard of living of the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.'
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10: *Gendered Digital Divide:*
11: Though the digital divide along the axis of gender is particularly extreme in developing countries and cultures with more general gender inequality, its existence in our 'progressive' Western society is still an issue of concern. Here, the issue is not one of access or 'literacy,' but of technological ownership. While computers used to be the realm of hobbyists and video-gamers, a male-biased crowd, computer and Internet use statistics show a different view for the modern computer age. Posting usage numbers for the top ten websites, Quantcast.com shows females outnumbering or tied with males in the top seven sites. Among them, social networking and email sites show the greatest female-bias.
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13: So where is the digital divide? According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT, located inside the ATLAS institute, www.ncwit.org/about.factsheet.html), women earned only 19% of computer science degrees in 2007. So, while the digital universe is becoming more female friendly for users, the creation and technological ownership of the space still rests in the hands of men (81% of the time). I could argue with Lawrence Summers, the ex-president of Harvard, about whether or not this discrepancy is due to innate inferiority of females in understanding computer science principles, but he is unlikely to read this Wiki and therefore I'd be wasting my breath / typing energy. NCWIT posts another statistic on their site that is interesting here: In 1984, women earned 37% of CS degrees. Female CS enrollment is actually going down. Plummeting. Meanwhile, academically-capable female students are flooding University biology and chemistry programs. In an increasingly digital economy, where the products that fill our lives will, more and more, have a CPU somewhere inside them, this gendered digital divide in technology creation is of considerable concern. First off, we need more computer scientists overall to create these products. Secondly, since over half these products are being consumed (used) by women, we need women to have direct control over how these products are designed.
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15: Possible solutions to this divide have been offered in the areas of both education and image. A quick look around this Engineering department indicates that the more general field of engineering is addressing the same issues, using carefully crafted language to try to interest females in engineering: "Solve real-world problems through engineering. Help your community." NCWIT is currently working on similar image campaigns, on a larger scale, to attract girls and young women to the IT field. However, piquing interest is not the complete answer. Universities and computer-based work environments must also address an existing cultural masculinity that may make the physical computer science realm uninhabitable to women, extinguishing their spark of interest in the foyer.
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17: *CLever and the digital divide*
18: The majority of digital products and applications are designed for cognitively 'normal' users. Though some people with cognitive and learning disabilities can benefit from existing and mainstream technologies, others have more trouble. This inability to use the technological tools designed for the majority can further marginalize an already struggling subsection of our population. Hence, cognitively disabled individuals face another digital divide. The CLever project confronts this divide by designing technology specifically for cognitively disabled users, matching specific learning and cognitive disabilities with tools that can help them learn, socialize, and become more independent. The demo described the cognitive and social situation of a single potential CLever user. Through the use of a website and carefully matched technology, a cognitively disabled female was able to gain significant independence. CLever is committed to making sure that technology works for everyone, not only for the privileged (in this case the cognitively normal).