(sigh)
/* FLAME ON
I can't believe it (or maybe I can)....so the entire issue of the Digital
Divide is based on either:
o the number of telephone handsets available to a population
o the coverage of cell towers or land lines going into a geographical
area
It has nothing to do with the fact that a lot of technical documents are only
available in English, or that the average Chinese worker in the fields has to
work for ten months to be able to afford a shiny plastic disk with Microsoft
Office on it.
The Digital Divide is affected by people not being able to get software
to do what they want it to....to speak to them in their own language. Or in
the case of 10-15% of the Indian population, no language at all. I guess
that is where telephones come in. You don't have to read or write to use
a telephone.
The Digital Divide is finished, folks....desolve the mailing list. Never mind
that a young friend of mine from Columbia has to work three months to get the
airline fees to travel to a technical conference he needs. I work for three
days for the same goal. There is no Digital Divide because we both have a
telephone!
The educators in the schools must be relieved to know that all they need to do
is get a telephone handset and the ease of teaching their students with little
or no computers in the classroom, and no connection to the Internet will be
resolved.
WHY do they hold these meetings in Geneva? Why don't they hold them in the
REAL world, say....Nigeria or (dare I say it) Appalacia or Indian reservations
in the South West of the United States? Or maybe inner-city Chicago...the
Digital Divide is not an "African thing".
You passed along that article just to get a rise out of me, didn't you?
FLAME OFF /*
--
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director Linux International(R)
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St.
Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org
Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association
(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.
(R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant
to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus
Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other
countries.
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