Oliver Bell’s weblog

As an industry we have a lot more work to do to close the aptly named Digital Divide, some great work has taken place around a number of under served groups, but we need to work out how we help all areas of society in all parts of the world get access to the technology that they need to live their lives, compete for business, to learn and to grow.

The Digital Divide has been a focus of many projects over the last two decades, looking at broadband connectivity to rural areas, access to information for disenfranchised individuals and more recently projects such as the “One Laptop per Child” (OLPC) project which has been looking at the provision of hardware for educational purposes.

Microsoft has done a lot of work in this area as well, examples such as Windows Starter Edition which provides a low cost version of Windows for those who need it, or the Local Language Program, a project that works with local communities to localize our products into many more languages than we would ever reach on a regular commercial basis.

Finally the Digital Divide is a huge area of focus for the NGOs here in the region, many of whom are administering projects to provide technology to individuals or establishing funding programs that allow individuals to provide their own access to technology that most of us take for granted.

In many of these instances the divide is defined around the individual, and very often that definition is carried in terms of the developing world and the access to technology that individuals have a right to, enabling them to learn, work, play and live in the same way as those living in any other part of the world.

I’m of the opinion that in the world that we live in today we should be thinking about the scope of this definition and considering that there are several areas where we should expand that scope. It is a given that every one of the 6bn individuals around the globe have a right to the same level and type of information, but there are several ways of delivering on this vision.

There is no question that we need to continue the push everything thta is currently underway around the individual, but we can do more.

Thinking beyond the individual we should also be looking at solutions to the problems faced by emerging companies, established companies, city administrations, government agencies and even entire national governments.

The examples here are common to the current scenarios that we work with today, but need to be expanded to think about this issue in new ways, providing creative new solutions.

As a child the technology coupled with improved teaching techniques help you learn faster, and in parallel with other students elsewhere in the world.

As an emerging business you need access to the same information, along with management and logistical technology as other businesses elsewhere in the world. Companies and commerce are just as reliant on the availability of broadband, and access to the Internet as individuals.

As a government, at city, state or federal level, access to technology helps run a more efficient administration, using new technologies to reach citizens, integrate with your local businesses and communicate with other parts of your own government.

As we race towards 2010 we need to see more projects addressing the whole of society at all levels, we need to provide connectivity, transactional capability, common training and user education to any part of society that needs it regardless of the demographic of the area in question.

Access to many aspects of technology today is seen as a mediating factor, enabling financial growth, education, healthcare and general human well being.

As an industry and as a society we need to be ready to provide these same opportunities to all of the 6bn people on the planet. Explanation of the definition of the Digital Divide will push us to think about how one European city competes with another European city, how a business in Thailand competes with a business in New Zealand, how a city in the United States provides the same standard of living, education and healthcare to its citizens as any other city on the continent.

We can’t rest here, we have work to do.