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Overestimating the Digital Divide
OVERESTIMATING THE GLOBAL DIGITAL DIVIDE
The global digital divide between North and South - the
industrialised and the developing nations - is undoubtedly great.
But it is also overestimated.
Why? Because we tend to use invalid models of connectivity in
the South: models that rely on Northern notions of one email
account serving one individual; and pre-global notions of
Internet hosts and accounts merely serving their host country.
In practice, many individuals in developing countries are using
hosts and - especially - accounts based in the North. They are
also sharing access, with one account serving many people.
Hidden from the view of formal statistics, individuals are
connected - via their organisations, via family members, or via
friends, acquaintances and neighbours.
Recent research from Trinidad & Tobago puts some figures on
this (i). Formal statistics showed only one in twenty households
to be connected to the net. On-the-ground surveys, however,
showed one in three households had access to an email account.
The global digital divide is very much a reality, and very much
an issue to be addressed. However, these figures suggest the
divide may be misunderstood and up to seven times
overestimated.
Richard Heeks
(i) Miller, D. & Slater, D. (2000) The Internet: An
Ethnographic Account, Berg, Oxford, UK.
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Dr Richard Heeks
Senior Lecturer, Information Systems & Development
Institute for Development Policy & Management
University of Manchester
Precinct Centre
Manchester M13 9GH U.K.
Phone: +44-161-275-2870 Fax: +44-161-273-8829
Email: richard.heeks@man.ac.uk
IDPM Web: http://www.man.ac.uk/idpm
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