ACCESS AND DIGITAL DIVIDE

COM 597

Kathy E. Gill22 November 2010

AREAS OF DISCUSSION

Digital Divide Access and Accessibility Public Space

DIGITAL DIVIDE: NOT JUST 3RD WORLD Definition: The gap between those who

have access to or who can benefit from technology and those who cannot

Examples: US: Rural/Urban broadband access US: “poor” / “rich” (access) English v “everything else” Half of the world’s population has never made

a telephone call (ITU) Internet indicators by country (pdf)

INTERNET ACCESS PER 100 INHABITANTS, UN DATA

1 IN 5 HOUSEHOLDS WORLDWIDE HAVE BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS, GARTNER

2008 – 382 million households 2009 – 422 million households 2013 – 580 million households

ACCESS AND ACCESSIBILITY (1/2)

There’s “access” and then there’s “accessibility” Do we have access to a technology? Does the technology allow everyone access

(accessibility)?

Whose responsibility is it to help make the internet more accessible to all?Government, Industry, us?

ACCESS AND ACCESSIBILITY (2/2)

Network neutrality is hot “access” topic Feb 2006: AOL and Yahoo proposed fee to

ensure e-mail delivery (IHT, 6 Feb 2006) $0.025 to $0.01 per e-mail Would not be subject to existing user spam

filters A benefit for businesses (Ascribe, 2 Feb 2006)

AT&T and others proposed “access-tiering” (two-tier Internet) (Red Herring, 31 Jan 2006) Prioritize packets? Streaming video is the

rationale

NET NEUTRALITY

There is something wrong with network owners saying “we’ll guarantee fast video service from NBC on your broadband account.” And there is something especially wrong with network owners telling content or service providers that they can’t access a meaningful broadband network unless they pay an access tax.

I don’t mean “wrong” in the sense of immoral, or even unfair. My argument is not about the social justice of Internet access. I mean “wrong” in the sense that such a policy will inevitably weaken application competition on the Internet, and that in turn will weaken Internet growth. Testimony, Lawrence Lessig, Stanford, Senate Commerce, Science and

Transportation Committee, 7 February 2006

CONNECTIVITY

Statistics are, to put it mildly, squishy 2006: Canada led the G7 group of

industrialized countries in broadband penetration (OECD); US was 16th (ITU)

2008: US ranked 19th in speed (OECD) See

http://wiredpen.com/2010/02/23/fcc-issues-new-broadband-stats/

US IS NOT WORLD TECH LEADER

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, Aug 2005: (tongue-in-check) considering a run for President, promised that after four years, our cell phone service would be at least as good as Ghana's, and if elected for a second term, as good as Japan’s.

WHAT SPEEDS MEAN Cable

Basic: 4 Mbps to 6 Mbps High End: 12 Mbps to 16 Mbps and faster

DSL Basic: 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps High End: 3 Mbps to 7 Mbps

Fiber Optic Cable: 15Mbps – 25 Mbps Mobile

EDGE Up to 58Kbps, average 22Kbps Mobile – 3G AT&T: Download, 700-1.7 Mbps; Upload, 500

Kbps – 1.2 MbpSprint: Download, 600Kbps – 1.4 MbpsVerizon: 600 Kbps to 1.4Mbps

Mobile – 4G Download: 3-6 Mbps Satellite: 10 – 20kbps WiMax (like Clear): Download: 3-6 Mbps South Korea 1 Gbps (2012) Japan Average advertised: 93.6 Mbps (2007) France Average advertised: 44.1 Mbps (2007)

AVERAGE ADVERTISED BROADBAND SPEED SEPT 2008, OECD

US “BROADBAND” ADOPTION

FCC GOAL (MARCH 2010)

By 2020, to connect 100 million U.S. households (~85 percent) to 100 Mbps high speed broadband

Compare: Australia: 100 Mpbs to 90 percent households by

2018 (two years and ~5 percent ahead of U.S. plan) Finland: 100 Mbps in every household by 2016 (four

years and ~15 percent ahead of the U.S. plan Singapore: next generation Internet to all

households by 2013 (seven years and ~15 percent ahead of U.S. plan

South Korea: 1 Gbps by 2014 (six years and an order of magnitude ahead of U.S. plan)

SAVE THE INTERNET COALITION

INTERNET INNOVATION ALLIANCE

PUBLIC SPACE: FORM OF ACCESS

“From the time that humans first defined private spaces, public spaces have served as places where people have come together to exchange ideas. From the ancient Greek's Agora to the Middle Ages' Commons to early 20th century American urban streets and parks, public spaces have been centers for free speech and public discourse.”

Howard Besser, UCLA, 2001

PUBLIC SPACE AND FREE SPEECH “[T]he First Amendment affords the public

access to discussion, debate, and the dissemination of information and ideas... the right to receive information is an inherent corollary of the rights of free speech and press that are explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution... the right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient's meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom." Supreme Court, 1978, First National Bank of Boston v.

Bellotti

PUBLIC SPACE IS IMPORTANT

Public space provides the potential for the gathering of people who might not otherwise come in contact with one another in their daily lives. In this way public space is crucial to the public sphere (Jacobs, 1999)

In public space, action gains publicity because it is visible to the public (Mattson, 1999; Putnam, 2000)

Cyberspace has been called a surrogate public space (Gumpert & Drucker, 1992, 1998) or the "electronic agora" (Rheingold 1993, 14).

PUBLIC SPACE NURTURES DIVERSITY

Open to everyone No monetary barrier, no physical barrier (ADA),

no “color” barrier (desegregation) Examples: city streets, parks, public

transportation, public buildings Others?

PSEUDO PUBLIC SPACE

Shopping malls, sports stadiums Private spaces Can control speech Can control access

Facebook? Twitter? MySpace?

AIRWAVES AS PUBLIC SPACE Radio and TV licenses predicated on broadcasting

that serves the “public interest” Public Radio and TV (PBS) What happens if “everyone” watches “cableTV,” a

private space? How might “internet TV” provide another pseudo

commons?

“PUBLIC SPACE” IN CYBERSPACE

Public (free) WiFi in the US Spokane New York Parks, Google in NY/SF Coffee shops in Seattle Free WiFi Directory

By providing free WiFi, do you think that we are intensifying a constant need for news, info and entertainment? Why or why not? When you use wireless networks, do you feel safe or do you have reservations about security?

THE NEW DIGITAL DIVIDE : LITERACY

SUMMARY

Access is only part of the DD story Although most of the DD story is outside our

borders, it’s not just outside our border Access also means public space Public space is important, changing

Network TV -> Cable TV -> ipTV Rise of pseudo public space

Efforts to foster public space in cyberspace include community networks and publicly accessible WiFi

CREDITS

Kathy E Gill, @kegill or kegill@uw.edu Creative Commons License: attribution, non-

commercial, share-and-share-alike