The Case for Engagement - Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement - page 31

Norris (2001) in fact identifies three distinct aspects of digital divide: a
“ global divide ”, which refers to differences in levels of Internet access be-
tween industrialised and developing societies; a “ social divide ”, which re-
fers to the gap between 'information rich' and 'information poor' in each
nation; and lastly, a “ democratic divide ”, which refers to the division be-
tween those who do and those who do not use digital resources to engage,
mobilise and participate in public life.
The technology which is most prominent in discussions about the digital
divide is, of course, the Internet. Since its emergence in the 1980s, there is
evidence to show that usage of the Internet in many countries is following
a well-established pattern of technology diffusion. This pattern sees early
adoption by a relatively small percentage of innovators and technophiles,
succeeded by a surge in take up by a significant percentage of the popula-
tion, with a 'tail' of the population who are late or non-adopters of the
technology (Rogers 1995). Thus, in the UK for example, the number of
households with access to the Internet increased almost sixfold from 2.3
million in September 1998 to 13.1 million in May 2005, (over half of all
UK households -55%), with 60% (38.14 million) of adults in the UK say-
ing that they had used the Internet somewhere in the previous three months
(National Statistics 2005). Similarly, the number of North American adults
going online grew by 100% between 2000 and 2005. Overall, approxi-
mately 68% of adult Americans (more than 2.2 million people) now use
the Internet. But, as figure 3.2 shows, these levels of uptake in the UK and
the US are not representative of everywhere else in the world.
While it is estimated that, in July 2005, there are almost a billion people
online globally, this represents only 15% of the world's entire population
(Internet World Statistics n.d.), and there are clear differences between na-
tions. Most of the African countries, for example, have fewer than 10% of
their population online, while in some countries the online population is
approaching 90%. But even within Europe there are significant differences
between the larger and more affluent countries where (depending on the
source of the statistics) penetration may be more than 70%, and the smaller
and less affluent countries, where penetration can be below 10%. There are
also differences in access and use within nations, even those with the high-
est levels of Internet access. Computer and Internet use are divided along
demographic and socioeconomic lines, with the youngest, most affluent
and better educated most likely to enjoy the benefits of connection: “ the
Internet, like cable TV, mobile phones and fax machines before it, connects
the connected more than the peripheral ” (Norris 2001).