IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The digital divide, a term that refers to the gap between those who have access to information and communications technology (ICT) and those who do not, is a pressing global issue. However, the deployment of ICT infrastructure for smart cities plays a key role in bridging this gap, expanding access to essential services and promoting digital inclusion.

ICT-driven smart cities are urban areas that use various types of electronic methods and sensors to collect data. The insights gained from this data are used to efficiently manage assets, resources and services. This includes data from citizens, devices, buildings and assets that is processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste, crime detection, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals and other community work .

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Indian government is preparing to launch its 'Digital India' initiative on a large scale, which will also include selling merchandise, hackathons and games.

Launch of Digital India, an initiative to take technology to the villages and block-levels, will be spread over a week across the country.

No dates have been fixed so far but the Digital India Week (DIW) is likely to kick-start in July. It will involve stakeholders across state governments and ministries. This is likely to be one of the flagship programmes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While the Internet has not wrought the similar types of profound, broad societal changes in Africa that it has in other parts of the world, the connectivity landscape in Africa is in fact changing very quickly in many places, with macro-level announcements about progress with new fibre optic cables coming on what seems like a weekly basis.

Minister of Finance Colm Imbert says Government has been engaged in a series of reforms that seek to strengthen the overall economic management of the country including closing the digital divide.

These reforms are geared to creating a sustainable economic environment that would accommodate the generation of employment and opportunities for business development.

At the telecentre, the community would be able to access information through television and ICT tools such as the internet, fax and telephones.

About 15 telecentres have already been built across the country according to Enock Mpenzwa who is programme officer in the ministry of Communications, Science and Technology. The creation of telecentres is provided for by the Universal Communication Access Act, 2006.

The minister for communications, science and technology Professor Makame Mbarawa said this in Dar es Salaam at the launch of the ministry’s exhibition to mark the 50th independence anniversary.

In a bid to bridge this digital divide, the minister said that the government will provide subsidies to attract investors to invest in rural areas.

At a symposium entitled “Economic Empowerment for Low-Income Workers Through Broadband Training,” Applebaum joined other panelists who touted the necessity of an aggressive expansion of U.S. broadband capacity. The United States currently ranks fifteenth in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

BT Scotland director Bob Downes is due to meet Wallace next month in a bid to work out how people in rural parts of Scotland can embrace the digital revolution. Downes will tell the minister that the Executive needs to work harder to avoid significant chunks of the country losing out because of the challenging geography.

The government's big IT target for the next term — if it wins the election on May 5 — is to persuade society's have-nots to get on the web. A comprehensive IT strategy unveiled last week sets a target of eliminating the digital divide among families with children by 2008. The aim is "to create a country at ease in the digital world". We achieve this not just by handing out more free computers or broadband connections, but by changing the middle-class character of the web.

The lobby group polled older people who do not know how to use a computer, finding that 70 per cent believe employers prefer to have workers with IT skills.

The ever-growing 'digital divide' between technology haves and have-not is only a short-term concern that will correct itself with time, claims a new Government-sponsored study.

How quickly the gap closes will depend upon policy initiatives and private sector action, with eGovernment playing an important part, says the report commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Introduction

'Digital inclusion', a term coined in the late 1990s, amounts to far more than simply providing convenient access to computers and the internet. It describes efforts to help ensure everyone is able to understand and enjoy the benefits that the internet has brought to modern life.

e-Government services may completely miss people who don't have an address, let alone access to a computer or phone - and strategic planning is needed for many 'next generation' governmental online services to ensure that intermediaries (such as Citizens Advice bureau) are able to assist in their delivery to this vulnerable section of society.

LB Islington launched a service on 9 September 2005 that will enable people with hearing impairments to communicate effectively with the council.

The technology uses a video conferencing link to a sign language interpreter (SLI) at the offices of private partner and technology provider Significan't. The interpreter can act as a translator between a council call centre operative and a deaf person.

This is the implication of research into the impact of online school admissions systems, which warns there's a risk that only the parents who are already comfortable with the internet are likely to use them.

In a survey undertaken for the report, 42 per cent admitted using e-government services to search for information about government or local council services, or used online services such as paying for road tax or registering for Child Tax Credits. This figure rose to 55 per cent among people who have internet access at home.

Schools should take steps to address the digital divide by providing "portable technologies" to be used by children beyond the classroom, Baroness Estelle Morris said on 29 September 2005.

The former education secretary was launching a campaign to bridge the digital divide on behalf of the e-Learning Foundation. The campaign aims to raise awareness across education, in government and the private sector of the impact of the digital divide on young people.