Women, Technology & the Digital Caste System

taliawhyte Global Wire Associates broadband, digital divide, International Women's Day, millennium development goals, Mobile World Congress, women's rights

While many attendees at the Mobile World Congress have focused mainly on all the latest and greatest mobile tools, a discussion that has gone largely under the radar is the so-called “digital caste system.” Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said in his keynote before MWC12 that for the “aspiring majority” of five out of seven billion global citizens, “the web is still a scarce resource.”

“For most people the digital revolution has not arrived yet. Every revolution begins with a small group of people. Imagine how much better it would be with another five billion people online,” he said. “Smartphones are part of the solution, but having a smartphone is not enough to get you online.”

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7 December 2011

Library 2.0: Supporting Underserved Communities

taliawhyte Global Wire Associates American Library Association, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, digital divide, Digital Public Library of America, economic disparities, public library, rural libraries, urban libraries

With the advent of e-books, audio books, Kindles and other devices that make the art of reading a digital experience, many wonder with the declining number of bookstores, what will happen to public libraries. For those of us who are lucky to live in places where a library exists, they are not only spaces to read and lend out books, but they also act as community meeting spaces.

However, the increase in digital media has also been compounded with the current economic downturn, which has contributed to the budget cuts and closings of many public libraries around the United States. Even more unfortunate is that many of these endangered public libraries are serving marginalized populations in rural and inner city areas.

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