The authors of the attached reading present an overview of the evolution of information technology, specifically the Internet, and its impact on various aspects of the economy, politics and society. While their perspective is generally positive, they highlight two outcomes of the age of information technology: an emerging international technological divide, and concerns about privacy and security. For this discussion thread, you are expected to do some research about the international digital divide that address the following questions:
1) What is the international digital divide?
2) How extensive is the international digital divide?
3) How does the international digital divide (if it exists) reconcile with assumptions that information technologies facilitate equality of political and economic opportunities?
To earn the full points, your response will fully address each aspect of the question and will be supported by examples. Also, it will reference at least three scholarly sources besides the class reading material.
P/S:
“But perhaps most dramatically, just fifteen years ago, only scientists were using (or had even heard about) the Internet; the World Wide Web was not up and running, and the browsers that help users navigate the Web had not even been invented yet.”
This sentence in the (second) reading is inaccurate. Please ignore it. The WWW was launched in 1991 though it became more widely known between 1994 and 1996 following policies in the United States and other countries. There were browsers such as Netscape as early as 1994. The processes that led to the development of the Internet began in 1969.