Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 10.12
Unemployed workers in Ennis, Ireland, resisted using the Internet to receive
their benefits, preferring to report in person to the social welfare office, where they could
visit with other people.
(© Richard Cummins/Corbis)
Mark Warschauer has suggested three reasons why the term “digital divide” is not help-
ful. First, it tends to promote the idea that the difference between the “haves” and the
“have nots” is simply a question of access. Some politicians have jumped to the conclu-
sion that providing technology will close the divide. Warschauer says this approach will
not work. To back his claim, he gives as an example the story of a small town in Ireland.
While many factories in Ireland produced IT products, there was not a lot of IT use
among Irish citizens. Ireland's telecommunications company held a contest in 1997 to
select and fund an “Information Age Town.” The winner was Ennis, a town of 15,000
in western Ireland (Figure 10.12). The $22 million in prize money represented $1,200
per resident, a large sum for a poor community. Every business was equipped with an
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) line, a Web site, and a smart card reader.
Every family received a smart card and a personal computer.
Three years later, there was little evidence of people using the new technology. De-
vices had been introduced without adequately explaining to the people why they might
want to use them. The benefits were not obvious. Sometimes the technology competed
with social systems that were working just fine. For example, before the introduction of
the new technology, unemployed workers visited the social welfare office three times a
