[DDN] digital divide article in the Post

[S. Mitchell]

Hi All,
I am not sure if everyone got a chance to see this but the digital divide is finally getting the attention in the national political arena it needs.



>From the Washington Post. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072201278.html

 

Binary America: Split in Two by A Digital Divide

 

By Jose Antonio Vargas

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, July 23, 2007; Page C01

 

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Less than a mile and a half from the Citadel, the site of the Democratic presidential debate tonight, sits Cooper River Courts, a public housing project. Forget the Web. Never mind YouTube, the debate's co-sponsor. Here, owning a computer and getting on the Internet (through DSL or cable or Wi-Fi) is a luxury.

 

"I am low-income and computers are not low-income," says Marcella Morris, sitting on the front step of her apartment building on a sweltering day last week.

                

The unemployed 45-year-old adds: "I know how to use a computer. I just can't afford one right now."

 

There exists "two Americas," as John Edwards, South Carolina's own son, likes to say: an America for the rich and an America for the poor. But what Edwards and the rest of the presidential field have yet to adequately address are the two Americas online: one that's connected to high-speed Internet -- socializing, paying bills, uploading debate questions to presidential candidates on YouTube -- and one that's not. This is the digital divide, now more than a decade old, a rarely discussed schism in which the unconnected are second-class citizens. In some parts of this so-called Internet ghetto, the screech of a telephone modem dialing up to get online is not uncommon. And with dial-up, YouTube is impossible to use.

 

click on the link to view the full text of the article.



 

Peace and Blessings
Shireen Mitchell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Executive Officer - Digital Sisters/Sistas Inc.
President, Community Technology Center's Network (CTCNet)
Chair, Media and Technology Taskforce (NCWO)
Main Office: 202.722.6881
www.digital-sistas.org
CFC# 5630