The e-Learning Foundation, the only national charity dedicated to erasing the digital divide in the UK by ensuring disadvantaged children have access to technology for their studies at home as well as at school, has launched its latest grants round to schools.
http://www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/news/national-charity-works-on-the-digital-divide
Lloyd’s Charities Trust has donated £50,000 to the e-Learning Foundation, to provide access to computing at home for children in low-income families
October 30 2008: The e-Learning Foundation, a national charity working to close the
digital divide in the UK, welcomes the Government’s cash injection of £300 million over the
next two years for a home access and believes that, if executed correctly, the programme
could potentially eliminate the digital divide for the country’s current generation of learners.The £300 million programme, which was announced by the Prime Minister Gordon Brownlast month, is scheduled to go nationwide next autumn, providing home access to everyfive-to-19 year old by 2011.
AOL The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. The world's leading interactive services company, together with the AOL Foundation, announced today at the G-8 summit in Tokyo new initiatives to expand digital opportunity internationally. The initiatives are based on some of the most successful models operating in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to bridge the digital divide. They are part of AOL's overall strategy to ensure that the interactive medium offers the maximum benefits to society and empowers as many people as quickly as possible. AOL is committed to making the Internet a truly global medium in which citizens and businesses can interconnect while preserving local traditions and cultural differences. Working with other global private sector companies, governments, international and local nonprofit organizations Nonprofit OrganizationAn association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well.Notes:Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. , and local businesses, we can create a more connected world."
Thursday 3 December 2009
Wednesday 2 December 2009
Why should we bridge the digital divide
The new information and communications technologies are among the driving forces of globalization. They are bringing people together, and bringing decision makers unprecedented new tools for development. At the same time, however, the gap between information "haves" and "have-nots" is widening, and there is a real danger that the world's poor will be excluded from the emerging knowledge-based global economy.
Information technology is extremely cost-effective compared with other forms of capital. Modest yet key investments in basic education and access can achieve remarkable results. Estonia and Costa Rica are well-known examples of how successful IT strategies can help accelerate growth and raise income levels. But even some of the least-developed countries, such as Mali and Bangladesh, have shown how determined leadership and innovative approaches can, with international support, connect remote and rural areas to the Internet and mobile telephony.
Public tele-centers have been established in places as diverse as Egypt, Kazakhstan and Peru. Indeed, information technologies can give developing countries the chance to leapfrog some of the long and painful stages of development that other countries had to go through.
But bridging the digital divide is not going to be easy. Too often, state monopolies charge exorbitant prices for the use of bandwidth. Governments need to do much more to create effective institutions and supportive regulatory frameworks that will attract foreign investment; more generally, they must also review their policies and arrangements to make sure they are not denying their people the opportunities offered by the digital revolution.
We need to think of ways to bring wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) applications to the developing world, so as to make use of unlicensed radio spectrum to deliver cheap and fast Internet access. We also need to explore the possibility of creating an open international university. Surely, experts can think of many more ideas along these lines.
The United Nations is working hard to enlist this power in the cause of economic and social development. A Health InterNetwork, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, is creating Web sites for hospitals, clinics and public health facilities in the developing world to bring high-quality information within reach and to facilitate communication in the public health community. The United Nations Information Technology Service, a global consortium of volunteer corps coordinated by the U.N. Volunteers program, is training people in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of information technology.
http://news.cnet.com/2010-1069-964507.html
Information technology is extremely cost-effective compared with other forms of capital. Modest yet key investments in basic education and access can achieve remarkable results. Estonia and Costa Rica are well-known examples of how successful IT strategies can help accelerate growth and raise income levels. But even some of the least-developed countries, such as Mali and Bangladesh, have shown how determined leadership and innovative approaches can, with international support, connect remote and rural areas to the Internet and mobile telephony.
Public tele-centers have been established in places as diverse as Egypt, Kazakhstan and Peru. Indeed, information technologies can give developing countries the chance to leapfrog some of the long and painful stages of development that other countries had to go through.
But bridging the digital divide is not going to be easy. Too often, state monopolies charge exorbitant prices for the use of bandwidth. Governments need to do much more to create effective institutions and supportive regulatory frameworks that will attract foreign investment; more generally, they must also review their policies and arrangements to make sure they are not denying their people the opportunities offered by the digital revolution.
We need to think of ways to bring wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) applications to the developing world, so as to make use of unlicensed radio spectrum to deliver cheap and fast Internet access. We also need to explore the possibility of creating an open international university. Surely, experts can think of many more ideas along these lines.
The United Nations is working hard to enlist this power in the cause of economic and social development. A Health InterNetwork, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, is creating Web sites for hospitals, clinics and public health facilities in the developing world to bring high-quality information within reach and to facilitate communication in the public health community. The United Nations Information Technology Service, a global consortium of volunteer corps coordinated by the U.N. Volunteers program, is training people in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of information technology.
http://news.cnet.com/2010-1069-964507.html
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