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.

MIT Press sourcebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Digital divide--United States.

Digital divide.

Information technology--Social aspects--United States.

Information technology.

Physical Description:

xvi, 357 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation 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 nonissue. 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:

Machine generated contents note: I The Set-Up: Documenters of the Digital Divide 1

1 Falling through the Net: A Survey of the "Have-Nots" in Rural and

Urban America 7

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

2 Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide 17

3 The Evolution of the Digital Divide: Examining the Relationship of

Race to Internet Access and Usage over Time 47

Donna L. Hoffman, Thomas P. Novak, and Ann E. Schlosser

I The Context: Background and Texture 99

4 Information Gaps: Myth or Reality? 105

Benjamin M. Compaine

5 Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone

Penetration in Camden, New Jersey 119

Milton L. Mueller and Jorge Reina Schement

6 Universal Access to Online Services: An Examination of the

Issue 147

Benjamin M. Compaine and Mitchell J. Weinraub

7 Universal Service Policies as Wealth Redistribution 179

Milton L. Mueller

III The Advocates: Raising the Stakes 189

8 Equality in the Information Age 195

William E. Kennard

9 The Digital Divide Confronts the Telecommunications Act of 1996:

Economic Reality versus Public Policy 199

The First Triennial Review, 1999

Mark Cooper and Gene Kimmelman

10 The E-rate in America: A Tale of Four Cities 223

Andy Carvin, editor, with Chris Conte and Allen Gilbert

11 Universal Access to Email: Feasibility and Societal

Implications 243

Robert H. Anderson, Tora K. Bikson, Sally Ann Law, and Bridger

M. Mitchell

12 Clinton Enlists Help for Plan to Increase Computer Use 263

Marc Lacey

IV Reality Check: Tracking a Moving Target in High-Tech

Time 265

13 Data from Three Empirical Studies, 2000 269

Internet and Society: A Preliminary Report 269

Norman H. Nie and Lutz Erbring

The Digital World of Hispanics in the United States 272

Cheskin Research

Survey of Americans on Technology 274

National Public Radio, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Kennedy

School of Government

14 The Truth about the Digital Divide 279

Ekaterina O. Walsh with Michael E. Gazala and Christine Ham

15 Internet Access Spreads to More Classrooms, Survey Finds 285

Pamela Mendels

16 Cheap Computers Bridge Digital Divide 289

John Simons

17 This Internet Start-Up Looks to Conquer an Online Divide 293

Timothy Hanrahan

V What's It All Mean? 299

18 Of Gaps by Which Democracy We Measure 303

Jorge Reina Schement

19 Falling for the Gap: Whatever Happened to the Digital

Divide? 309

Adam Clayton Powell III

20 Declare the War Won 315

Epilogue 337

Source Notes 341

Contributors 343

Index 345.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-342) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-10025-4

9786612100253

0-262-28702-1

0-585-38663-3

OCLC:

49569455

Publisher Number:

9780262531931