The digital divide : facing a crisis or creating a myth? / edited by Benjamin M. Compaine.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Compaine, Benjamin M.

Series:

MIT Press sourcebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Digital divide--United States.

Digital divide.

United States.

Information technology--Social aspects--United States.

Information technology.

Information technology--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

xvi, 357 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2001]

Summary:

The Digital Divide refers to the perceived gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not. If we are indeed in an Information Age, then not having access to this information is an economic and social handicap. Some people consider the Digital Divide to be a national crisis, while others consider it an over-hyped non-issue. This book presents data supporting the existence of such a divide in the 1990s along racial, economic, ethnic, and education lines. But it also presents evidence that by 2000 the gaps are rapidly closing without substantive public policy initiatives and spending. Together, the contributions serve as a sourcebook on this controversial issue.

Contents:

The set-up: documenters of the digital divide

Falling through the net: a survey of the "have-nots" in rural and urban America / National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Falling through the net: defining the digital divide / National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The evolution of the digital divide: examining the relationship of race to internet access and usage over time / Donna L. Hoffman, Thomas P. Novak, Ann E. Schlosser

The context: background and texture

Information gaps: myth or reality? / Benjamin M. Compaine

Universal service from the bottom up: a study of telephone penetration in Camden, New Jersey / Milton L. Mueller, Jorge Reina Schement

Universal access to online services: an examination of the issue / Benjamin M. Compaine, Mitchell J. Weinraub

Universal service policies as wealth redistribution / Milton L. Mueller / Equality in the information age / William E. Kennard

The digital divide confronts the Telecommunications Act of 1996: economic reality versus public policy. The first triennial review, 1999 / Mark Cooper, Gene Kimmelman

The e-rate in America: a tale of four cities / Andy Carvin, Chris Conte, Allen Gilbert

Universal access to email: feasibility and societal implications / Robert H. Anderson, Tora K. Bikson, Sally Ann Law, Bridger M. Mitchell

Clinton enlists help for plan to increase computer use / Marc Lacey

Reality check: tracking a moving target in high-tech time

Internet and society: a preliminary report / Norman H. Nie, Lutz Erbring

The digital world of Hispanics in the United States / Cheskin Research

Survey of Americans on technology / National Public Radio, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Kennedy School of Government

The truth about the digital divide / Ekaterina O. Walsh, Michael E. Gazala, Christine Ham

Internet access spreads to more classrooms, survey finds / Pamela Mendets

Cheap computers bridge digital divide / John Simons

This internet start-up looks to conquer an online divide / Timothy Hanrahan

What's it all mean?

Of gaps by which democracy we measure / Jorge Reina Schement

Falling for the gap: whatever happened to the digital divide? / Adam Clayton Powell III

Declare the war won / Benjamin M. Compaine.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0262531933

0262032872

OCLC:

45230379