Phlogiston Blue - Internet 'Haves'and 'Have Nots'

Internet 'Haves' and 'Have Nots'

Lately the discussion in the USA has been about the so-called 'digital divide' - those who have Internet access as opposed to those who do not. (It is interesting to note that there is no discussion about whether such access is desirable or not.) Since we are in the middle of a US presidential election campaign such issues make good soundbites, and it is true that Internet access in the US is currently a split along income and race lines.

I have little doubt that, in the long run, some type of Internet access will become as ubiquitous in America and Western Europe as the television now is. My feeling, though, is that the discussion is missing the issue, and that there are two much more important digital divides.

The first is that between the industrialised world and the so-called third world. How can you have an Internet where there are no phones? Perhaps no electricity? Definitely no computers. The Internet needs a substantial, and expensive, infrastructure to support it.

In any case, who is going to be worried about getting on-line when they are starving to death, or have no roof over their head? The Internet is a luxury for people in much of the world. Without the basic problems of daily survival being solved first browsing is a meaningless concept.

But even within the industrialised countries there is growing up a much more subtle digital divide which will eventually change the whole nature of the Internet. It is a divide defined by what means you use to access the Internet.

Just arriving on the market are a new generation of what are called 'Internet Access Devices', probably the best known of which is the set top box which allows you to browse the Internet on your television. ('Don't download porn in front of mommy, darling, it's not nice.')

Much (not a lot of it favourable) has been said about these devices, but one key issue has been missed by the commentators. General purpose computers can load programs like Front Page, Hot Metal and Cold Fusion and be used to create web sites. Access Devices can only browse the web. It is this that will create a much more profound digital divide - one between those who can create and publish web content, and those who can only look at the content published by others.

Alan Lenton
3 April, 2000

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