International Gap

The digital divide does not just exist within the United States, but also internationally. While the United States is facing problems in terms of having full broadband coverage or making sure rural areas have access to technology, there are third-world nations out there who do not have any sort of technology infrastructure at all. What limited technological resources are present go to the privileged few while the masses are left struggling without. This lack of access causes not just the technological gap to widen, but the socioeconomic gap as well.

There are several factors that causes an international gap in technology namely :

1) Cost

“Unlike in the States, computers are really expensive over in my country. For a medium-ranged computer (2 cores, 2GB ram, no graphics, none or pirated Windows OS, 160 - 320GB HDD), the price could easily rise to as much as roughly to RM 2000 - 2500 or maybe more if shopkeepers want to rip people off ($600 on average in US currency). That's just the hardware part.” ~ Quoted from Jay, Team 1, http://ci2010-team1.blogspot.com/2010/02/digital-divide.html

• Technology hardware and software can be expensive in some countries especially third-world nations as only a minority of the populations are tech-savvy. They do not know the technical details, price, the know how, and thus they are easily subjected to scam by those who are selling these tech stuffs. As a result of that, a vast majority are not able to enjoy access to technology.
• Nonetheless, cost for constant technical support is not cheap. It would be difficult to maintain the technological infrastructure invested heavily at the beginning.

2) Technology

“Broadband was offered since 5 - 7 years ago, but the speed is mediocre. Speed can get as low as 51kps, depending on the price you pay for the service (This is the service offered by the nation's largest ISP). The amount of time needed to load a YouTube video early in the night would be very annoying. Well, it's been like that for the past few years, but there's been some improvement since WiMAX was introduced in my country.” ! Quoted from Jay, Team 1, http://ci2010-team1.blogspot.com/2010/02/digital-divide.html

• As there are not much demand in third-world nations, the supply of the latest and finest technology would be rather poor as well. Without that, it would be impossible for the country to dip their toe into the technological world. With poor hardware specs, government, education, and personal tasks would diminish in terms of speed. On the other hand, slow internet connectivity would pose as a halt to daily activities when almost everything today are accomplished on the web.

What is the worst that could happen? Joy of Tech answers it at http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1034.html

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