Access and Digital Divide

COM 300

15 August 2011

Areas of Discussion

•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 : What Is It?

•What does it mean to you?

Broadband: FCC•Home broadband users are those who

said they used any one of the following technologies to access the internet from home: ▫cable modem▫a DSL-enabled phone line▫fixed wireless▫satellite,▫a mobile broadband wireless connection for

your computer or cell phone▫fiber optic, T-1

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”•Super WiFi may be the “fix” (62 miles,

22mbs)▫Unused TV spectrum

Cell Towers

Source:NYT

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▫Late 2000s, transition began to GSM

(AT&T/Cingular)▫Verizon: still 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 (relative to the rest of the world)

Global Literacy (1/3)

•Another issue: literacy▫Many definitions -- makes it difficult to

compare data•UN Data, literacy rate,15-24 year olds

▫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 Spaces” in Cyberspace

•Public (free) WiFi in the US▫ 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

Finally, Censorship•OpenNet initiative

▫China (pervasive)▫Saudi Arabia (substantial)

•USA▫Communications Decency Act (1996)▫Children’s Internet Protection Act (2000)▫DoD filters some IP addresses (pdf)

•Search▫Google.de and Google.fr

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/comment - recorder for group (someone who has not done this!)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?