Why Close The Digital Divide?

July 22 -- Leaders at the G-8 summit in Okinawa, Japan, have charged a special task force — dubbed the “DOT Force” — with tackling the technological gap between rich and poor nations. But they are not the only ones concerned about the so-called “digital divide.”

Not only does the divide exist between rich and poor nations, but also between America’s rich and poor, its racial majority and minorities, old and young, and men and women, some say.

The U.S. government and private industry have dedicated millions of dollars and thousands of hours to narrowing the gap, and consider doing so crucial to America’s future.

Read on to get their interpretations of what the divide is, why it matters, and why America and the world must bridge it.

International Digital Divide

*not including wireless accessSource: Jupiter Communications

An International Problem

“I believe the [online] revolution has the strong potential toeffect, in a very short time, structural, economic and socialchanges comparable to the Industrial Revolution.”

—Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, July 2000.

“The G77 poorest countries, in which revenues per person areless than one dollar a day, have declared that the single mostimportant effective change in their future would come fromchanging the ‘digital divide’ into a ‘digital opportunity.’ … That is our business, and that is now becoming the business of governments.”

—John Gage, chief researcher and director of Sun Microsystems Inc., July 2000.

“The ‘digital divide’ problem is so seriousthat unless we tackle it, developing countries will face theproblem of more poverty.”

—Roberto Romulo, chairman of a task force focusing on technology issues for theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations, July 2000.

An American Divide

“The reality is if you’re not plugged into the Internet in the near future, you’re going to be unplugged from job opportunities, unplugged from consumer opportunities, from finance opportunities.”