Time Out for the Digital Divide

For the past five days, Linda visited a place in the U.S. that doesn't have a proliferation of connectivity. In other words, she was unable to connect to the Internet even to download her email. What does this mean to someone who relies on the Internet and social media to connect with others in a seemingly well-connected society? Does it matter? Should designers and programmers take note of this situation?

Usability and Empowerment

Usability is a hot Web issue, and one that most designers and programmers often encounter and try to overcome. Basically, usability refers to the ability to use software and the Internet without too much difficulty. Instructions are clear and even the most computer-illiterate person can read how to use certain tools and act on those instructions. However, Nielsen has this to say on usability and the Digital Divide:

Far worse than the economic divide is the fact that technology remains so complicated that many people couldn't use a computer even if they got one for free. Many others can use computers, but don't achieve the modern world's full benefits because most of the available services are too difficult for them to understand.

In other words, Nielsen – the "king of usability," believes that almost half of the world's population is unable to use Web sites, let alone social media (a topic he doesn't broach in his article). This inability to use a the Web leads to lack of empowerment in a computerized society:

We have the knowledge needed to close the usability divide, and I remain hopeful that we'll get the job done. The empowerment divide, however, is the hard one: even if computers and the Internet were extraordinarily easy to use, not everybody would make full use of the opportunities that such technology affords.

What Nielsen does not mention is this: While some people may not want to make full use of these technological tools, at least they have that choice. Even a lack of initiative is a choice.

Maybe this isn't a concern for you as a designer or programmer...maybe your clients come from high-end computer users, and you don't feel the need to tap into a portion of society (at least 40 percent, according to Nielsen) that may or may not care about your work.

But, I'm going to presume that, as creative people, you have more on your plate than your work. Issues are important to many creative people, especially writers...but designers and programmers don't live in bubbles. You all have issues that are important to you, too. What happens when an issue is brought forward and resolved quickly via social media? If it is true that almost half the world is not connected or rendered powerless by this move to communicate via the Internet, then those individuals have lost the ability to make decisions on those issues. They have lost the choice to be part of – for lack of a better word – a democratic society.

Gutenberg and the Digital Divide

A dear friend of mine lives in a cabin in rural Virginia. He's a Web designer and an activist as well as an organic farmer. Additionally, he has a large family filled with five young children. Yet, he's managed to gain access to high-speed Internet and, although his equipment is a bit outdated, his software is up-to-date and he leads his clients into using social media as a tool for marketing as well as for connecting socially with others.

He has this to say about the digital divide that he sees surrounding him:

The Web has opened doors of societal change that were only cracked open by Gutenberg's printing press long ago. We have entered an era of extreme cultural changes similar to Gutenberg's time. No longer is the information or cultural currency guarded by the elite. Social media/Web 2.0 has unleashed the original intent of the internet: to be an environment of widespread collaboration, collectively shared information and facilitating platform for open (if only virtual) community life.

But, as illiteracy slammed the doors to a new world of information (via the printed word) in the Europe of the latter 1400s, so now we have our own barriers to harnessing the digital revolution. And this is no greater seen than in areas of poverty and in our rural communities.

One of these areas, located in North Carolina, was addressed by Free Press through an initiative entitled, InternetforEveryone.org. This initiative addresses the issues that allow people to gain access to the Web, to learn how to use the tools and to understand that they have a voice in anything that is available on the Web. This is just one small step in helping people gain access...to overcome economics, to overcome lack of usability and – in the process – to empower people.