http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/2008/09/the-end-of-the-digital-devide/ Media, marketing, design and advertising translated for the rest of us Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:48:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/2008/09/the-end-of-the-digital-devide/comment-page-1/#comment-41 Andrew Miller Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:19:12 +0000 http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/?p=57#comment-41 I agree with Jayne. The numbers say the divide is closing, soon to be no more. Real life suggests otherwise. Techno literacy is a massive issue in SA. If you effectively use your phone as a pager because you have only a few rands airtime, if you have no idea what www stands for, how to send an email etc. etc. then the world that could open up via mobile phones is bewildering rather than filled with opportunity. While in some areas the divide closes, in others it simply grows. Android. Open office. Joomla. Web 2. For many people in South Africa you may as well be discussing algebra in Russian. The technological opportunities are there, but it takes human interaction to make them real - this we're pretty short on, and it will be our big challenge in years to come I agree with Jayne. The numbers say the divide is closing, soon to be no more. Real life suggests otherwise. Techno literacy is a massive issue in SA. If you effectively use your phone as a pager because you have only a few rands airtime, if you have no idea what www stands for, how to send an email etc. etc. then the world that could open up via mobile phones is bewildering rather than filled with opportunity. While in some areas the divide closes, in others it simply grows. Android. Open office. Joomla. Web 2. For many people in South Africa you may as well be discussing algebra in Russian. The technological opportunities are there, but it takes human interaction to make them real – this we’re pretty short on, and it will be our big challenge in years to come

]]> http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/2008/09/the-end-of-the-digital-devide/comment-page-1/#comment-27 Jayne Morgan Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:48:19 +0000 http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/?p=57#comment-27 You are, of course, right. I have no doubt at all that mobile is the future to the closing over of the divide. <a href="http://dci.ru.ac.za" rel="nofollow">DCI</a> and <a href="http://highwayafrica.com" rel="nofollow">Highway Africa</a> were shot through with that single theme - mobile is the divide solution. However, having spent two mornings giving workshops for community media practitioners from all over SA on new media et al, and on the basis of my conversations there, I can tell you that it is too early to say the digital divide is gone. It's still pretty much grand canyon status. Some of the terms of web 2.0 have begun to be common currency but the language is still impenetrable for many. And once one feels that lack of understanding (and, believe me, I am a fellow traveller here in many ways despite my occupation as a podcast creator), the inertia against finding out more is considerable. Add that to the many difficulties of accessing the internet regularly, quickly and freely to try and find the information if you do overcome it. Even more importantly, the opening speaker of DCI,<a href="http://damariasenne.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Damariasenne</a> in a great presentation, pointed that having the phone is only one tiny start. Most people who have one, no matter how sophisticated, use it only for making and receiving calls, often only receiving via 'please call me', or sms. Just because a phone can do something, it doesn't mean that people can. There is also the issue of charging the phone. People are running businesses in the rural areas where they charge people's phones for ten rand a time because so many do not have access to electricity. These are the kinds of issues that need to be addressed if we are to make the divide narrower. From my work over the last two days, I can say the awareness is growing, the interest is there - but so is the frustration, the bafflement and feelings of exclusion. We who dwell in this world have to remember what a tiny and, to many, currently irrelevant world it is. And work to change that. You are, of course, right. I have no doubt at all that mobile is the future to the closing over of the divide. DCI and Highway Africa were shot through with that single theme – mobile is the divide solution. However, having spent two mornings giving workshops for community media practitioners from all over SA on new media et al, and on the basis of my conversations there, I can tell you that it is too early to say the digital divide is gone. It’s still pretty much grand canyon status. Some of the terms of web 2.0 have begun to be common currency but the language is still impenetrable for many. And once one feels that lack of understanding (and, believe me, I am a fellow traveller here in many ways despite my occupation as a podcast creator), the inertia against finding out more is considerable. Add that to the many difficulties of accessing the internet regularly, quickly and freely to try and find the information if you do overcome it. Even more importantly, the opening speaker of DCI,Damariasenne in a great presentation, pointed that having the phone is only one tiny start. Most people who have one, no matter how sophisticated, use it only for making and receiving calls, often only receiving via ‘please call me’, or sms. Just because a phone can do something, it doesn’t mean that people can. There is also the issue of charging the phone. People are running businesses in the rural areas where they charge people’s phones for ten rand a time because so many do not have access to electricity. These are the kinds of issues that need to be addressed if we are to make the divide narrower. From my work over the last two days, I can say the awareness is growing, the interest is there – but so is the frustration, the bafflement and feelings of exclusion. We who dwell in this world have to remember what a tiny and, to many, currently irrelevant world it is. And work to change that.

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