I have heard the conversation before – but the Aspen Ideas Network hits the good notes. They define the basic hurdles to digital inclusion: training, price/affordability, access to devices, public awareness of benefits and access to broadband. The participants give a lot of examples – like wifi on the buses. For many of us, it’s not new BUT if you have a potential partner for whom it is new – this is a great video for them.
Here’s their description…
Closing the Digital Divide
Five million of 29 million households with school-age children don’t have the Internet at home. Lacking highspeed access takes its toll on children and teens by making it unduly difficult to complete school assignments that are heavily dependent on Internet access—creating a homework gap that’s keenly felt by low income families. How can the public and private sectors work together to close the gap? How far will the FCC’s new Lifeline fund, which includes a broadband subsidy, go? Comcast set out to bridge the digital divide one family at a time—is it working? What more can be done? What more should be done?