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SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
Digital Divide(s) andBarriers to Participation
Al Larsen4/16/09
includes slides from Preconditions for Participation presentation by Trebor Scholz
The “Digital Divide”
divisions
Networked Society
Online Public Sphere
Aspects of Participation in the Social Web
time
relaxation
social capital
emotional support
access to information
software architecture
translation
intellectual property
identification
friendship
group belonging
individual vs. network value
format of contributions
signal-to-noise ratioembodied and networked sociality
job
reciprocity
mobile computing
permanency and privacy of content
low threshold engagement
gender
transparency of rulesand power dynamics
challenge
“I give because I am great” (agonistic giving)
feedback
trust
sharing the experience of one’s time & place
scale
archiving memory
pleasure of creation
hormones
tone, passion, humor, personality
type of content
contributing to the greater good
Trebor Scholz 2007
Preconditions for participation within the US (and beyond) include:
access to technology,
Internet access,
ability to read,
write,
author in a digital environment
(i.e. knowing how to use a wiki),
remembering the URL of a website, bandwidth,
cost of equipment,
the ease of use of the technological infrastructure,
time management, and
vast issues of age, race, gender
Participation in the Social Web is yet another thing to
do for already busy people. It takes time to consider
the issues, to figure out the software, and author a
contribution. In addition, it takes time to go through a
large number of posts from high-participation mailing
lists, for example.
Worldwide, for the people who have the time and
who are highly motivated there still exists the
problem that most sociable media environments
online are predominantly in English and the basic
rules of most systems (i.e., having to register in order
to participate.)
For non-native speakers it is hard to retain subtleties
such as ironic connotations of certain expressions.
Flaws in translated texts may also make the author
appear less educated, which prevents some people
from contributing.
Apart from time and language concerns, the politics
of the software architecture is an equally crucial
parameter of participation. Just like moving around in
a physical building, the software code regulates the
behavior in an online environment.
What kind of access?
What are the barriers to participation?
using the internet
consistent access to broadband
cell phone use
“Degrees of Access”
(May 2008)
Pew Internet Project
US Adults
US Adults
-
73% go online
US Adults
-
73% go online
55% have broadband at home
US Adults
-
73% go online
55% have broadband at home
78% have a cell phone
US Adults
-
27% don't go online
US Adults
-
27% don't go online
45% don't have broadband at home
US Adults
-
27% don't go online
45% don't have broadband at home
22% don't have a cell phone
Income
Language Barriers
National
Urban/Rural
Age
Disabilities
Income
Income and Broadband
yearly incomeand having broadband at home
2005
13%
less than $20,000 year
62%
over $100,000 year
Income and Broadband
yearly incomeand having broadband at home
2005
13%
less than $20,000 year
62%
over $100,000 year
2008
25%
less than $20,000 year
85%
over $100,000 year
Language Barriers
use DBI;
my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:Oracle:payroll') or die "Couldn't connect to database: " . DBI->errstr; my $sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT * FROM people WHERE lastname = ?') or die "Couldn't prepare statement: " . $dbh->errstr;
print "Enter name> "; while ($lastname = <>) { # Read input from the user my @data; chomp $lastname; $sth->execute($lastname) # Execute the query or die "Couldn't execute statement: " . $sth->errstr;
# Read the matching records and print them out while (@data = $sth->fetchrow_array()) { my $firstname = $data[1]; my $id = $data[2]; print "\t$id: $firstname $lastname\n"; }
if ($sth->rows == 0) { print "No names matched `$lastname'.\n\n"; }
$sth->finish; print "\n"; print "Enter name> "; } $dbh->disconnect;
National
Nationalsocial
political
economic
United States 208,000,000 Internet users in 2006
http://tinyurl.com/34tgja
Countries where Internet access is
available to the majority of the population
A list of 13 "enemies of the Internet" has been released by human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Belarus,
Burma,
China,
Cuba,
Egypt,
Iran,
North Korea,
Saudi Arabia,
Syria,
Tunisia,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Vietnam
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6124420.stm
“According to OpenNet Initiative [...] there are about 30 countries in which government filters Web sites with political content, conflict/security content and Internet tools such as e-mail and translation. Nearly 50 countries filter social content.” - WIA
World Information Access – University of Washington http://www.wiareport.org/index.php/56/blogger-arrests
World Information Access – University of Washington http://www.wiareport.org/index.php/56/blogger-arrests
Distribution of the Users of Social Networking Sites
The Digital Divide Is Not What It Used To Be
The growth of cell phone use in Africa is indeed explosive: the
lack of an extensive landline telephony infrastructure makes
mobile phones a good alternative. But consider this: In 2006,
the Washington Post published an article showing that
"worldwide, there are more than 2.4 billion cell phone users...
and [a]bout 59 percent of these users are in developing
countries, making cell phones the first telecommunications
technology in history to have more users there than in the
developed world." [1] Cell phone usage in Africa, the article
continued, is growing faster than in any other region and
jumped from 63 million users two years ago to about 152
million. This is not some kind of mobile business evangelism:
life in Africa is changed drastically for those with access.
Internet and India
100 millon people in India
most people get access through Internet cafes
many people access the net first on a cell phone, not a PC
most investment goes into telecom development
even small villages have cell phone signal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Censorship_in_India
Censorship
70% of under 23 Iranians send over 10 SMSes dailyTehran, Feb 28, 2007 Taliya News – 78% of those that send more than ten SMSes per day are singles, and in other words the singles use this service more than married people in Iran.
According to ILNA, based on the findings of a research work conducted by a graduate student, the majority of SMS senders are the university students and they mainly do so to have fun, including sending jokes and messages related to other recreational activities.
This journalism major graduate student has surveyed the method of taking advantage of SMS as a communicational means among 435 university student and come up with interesting results.
Among them, more than 70% of Iranians under 23 send more than ten SMSes daily.
Meanwhile, the unemployed individuals send more SMSes than the employed people.
According to the research results, jokes, making appointments, expressing feelings, information dissemination, inquiring about friends and relatives' health, sending congratulation and consolation massages, notes related to work and academic affairs, and finally, ads, are the highest tanking SMSes sent by Iranians respectively.
Africa is in the grip of a mobile phone revolution. "The number
of mobile phone lines in Africa rose
from 15.6 to 135 million between
2000 and 2005" OhmyNews reported how women in South
Africa fight for their human rights with cell phones. [2] This report continued:
“In a culture where people travel long distances to find work, the mobile has
become the most useful and ubiquitous piece of technology since the bicycle.
Just as bicycles are used in rural Africa to transport bananas or paying
passengers, the mobile is changing lives in ways unimagined in the developed
world. It links distant families and allows the poor to communicate.”
References:
[1]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070801063.html
[2] http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?
no=339544&rel_no=1
Urban/Rural
“wiring the last mile”
Last mile... India
Last mile... Indiana
http://tinyurl.com/2rxta5
Minority youth and people in rural
areas access the WWW in libraries
Age
OLPC Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvpP3Farb2g
