Global technology inequalities

The article I read entitled "Global Technology Imbalance Causing New Inequalities" basically talks about the digital divide across a global scale. The article points out some successes of the increasingly technological world like 1 billion internet subscribers around the world for example. It then counters saying that 80% of the world is not connected to the internet. This lack of access to information primarily occurs in the "third world," while industrialized and developed countries/governments such as the United States and Canada have invested in information technologies and not left that task solely up to it's citizens. The article claims that this governement investment is key to developing information systems, and that left to their own devices, citizens will not make the effort on their own. The article also stressed the importance of research and development of human capitol as well. Countries with a well developed system for educating their citizens and enhancing their scope of understanding are typically more technologically sound. These countries also tend to be more active in voicing input to information systems while underdeveloped countries tend to be merely receivers of information and rarely offer input of their own. The article also offered up some statistics, one that I thought was ridiculous that said "In the most developed countries, there are 563 computers per 1,000 people; but in the most backward there are only around 25 per 1,000 people." This statistic to me was insane and really highlighted the information divide we are experiencing on a global scale.


the link to this article is http://news.indiainfo.com/2006/09/26/2609global-technology-inequalities.html. All in all I would say it was pretty insightful and highlighted the information inequality of the world pretty well.