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Digital divide
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===Infrastructure=== The infrastructure by which individuals, households, businesses, and communities connect to the Internet address the physical mediums that people use to connect to the Internet such as desktop computers, laptops, basic mobile phones or [[smartphones]], iPods or other MP3 players, gaming consoles such as [[Xbox]] or [[PlayStation]], electronic book readers, and tablets such as iPads.<ref>Zickuher, Kathryn. 2011. [http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Generations-and-gadgets/Report/Desktop-and-Laptop-Computers.aspx Generations and their gadgets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116232829/http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Generations-and-gadgets/Report/Desktop-and-Laptop-Computers.aspx |date=November 16, 2011 }}. Pew Internet & American Life Project.</ref> [[File:BandwidthInequality1986-2014.jpg|thumb|300px |The digital divide measured in terms of bandwidth is not closing, but fluctuating up and down. Gini coefficients for telecommunication capacity (in kbit/s) among individuals worldwide<ref name="HilbertBitsDivide"/>]] Traditionally, the nature of the divide has been measured in terms of the existing numbers of subscriptions and digital devices. Given the increasing number of such devices, some have concluded that the digital divide among individuals has increasingly been closing as the result of a natural and almost automatic process.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Compaine |first1=Benjamin M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbareJicwKAC&q=closing |title=The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis Or Creating a Myth? |date=2001 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-53193-1 |page=ix}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Dutton | first1 = W.H. | last2 = Gillett | first2 = S.E. | last3 = McKnight | first3 = L.W. | last4 = Peltu | first4 = M. | year = 2004 | title = Bridging Broadband Internet Divides | journal = Journal of Information Technology | volume = 19 | issue = 1| pages = 28–38 | doi=10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000007| s2cid = 11827716 }}</ref> Others point to persistent lower levels of connectivity among women, racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes, rural residents, and less educated people as evidence that addressing inequalities in access to and use of the medium will require much more than the passing of time.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last1=Hargittai |first1=E. |chapter=The Digital Divide and What to Do About It |pages=822–841 |editor1-last=Jones |editor1-first=Derek C. |title=New Economy Handbook |date=15 September 2003 |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |isbn=978-0-12-389172-3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Zickuhr |first1=Kathryn |title=Who's Not Online and Why |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/09/25/whos-not-online-and-why/ |work=Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech |date=25 September 2013 |access-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104145742/https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/09/25/whos-not-online-and-why/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Recent studies have measured the digital divide not in terms of technological devices, but in terms of the existing bandwidth per individual (in kbit/s per capita).<ref name="HilbertInfoInequality">{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/asi.23020 |title=Technological information inequality as an incessantly moving target: The redistribution of information and communication capacities between 1986 and 2010 |year=2014 |last1=Hilbert |first1=Martin |journal=Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=821–835 |s2cid=15820273 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3wp93436 |access-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104145743/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3wp93436 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="HilbertBitsDivide">{{cite journal |last1=Hilbert |first1=Martin |title=The bad news is that the digital access divide is here to stay: Domestically installed bandwidths among 172 countries for 1986–2014 |journal=Telecommunications Policy |date=June 2016 |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=567–581 |doi=10.1016/j.telpol.2016.01.006 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1064176 |access-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117060953/https://zenodo.org/record/1064176 |url-status=live }}</ref> As shown in the Figure on the side, the digital divide in kbit/s is not monotonically decreasing but re-opens up with each new innovation. For example, "the massive diffusion of narrow-band Internet and mobile phones during the late 1990s" increased digital inequality, as well as "the initial introduction of broadband DSL and cable modems during 2003–2004 increased levels of inequality".<ref name="HilbertInfoInequality"/> During the mid-2000s, communication capacity was more unequally distributed than during the late 1980s, when only fixed-line phones existed. The most recent increase in digital equality stems from the massive diffusion of the latest digital innovations (i.e. fixed and mobile broadband infrastructures, e.g. [[5G]] and fiber optics [[FTTH]]).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tatalović |first1=Mićo |title=How mobile phones increased the digital divide |url=https://www.scidev.net/global/scidev-net-at-large/how-mobile-phones-increased-the-digital-divide/ |work=SciDev.Net |date=26 February 2014 |access-date=November 4, 2022 |archive-date=August 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824161025/https://www.scidev.net/global/scidev-net-at-large/how-mobile-phones-increased-the-digital-divide/ |url-status=live }}{{failed verification|date=October 2022|reason=no mention of either technology in the source}}</ref> Measurement methodologies of the digital divide, and more specifically an Integrated Iterative Approach General Framework (Integrated Contextual Iterative Approach – ICI) and the digital divide modeling theory under measurement model DDG (Digital Divide Gap) are used to analyze the gap existing between developed and developing countries, and the gap among the 27 members-states of the European Union.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abdalhakim |first1=Hawaf |year=2009 |title=An innovated objective digital divide measure |journal=Journal of Communication and Computer |volume=6 |issue=12 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Πασχαλίδου |first1=Γεωργία |title=Ψηφιακό χάσμα και ανισότητες στη χρήση νέων τεχνολογιών |trans-title=Digital divide and inequalities in the use of new technologies |language=el |date=2011 |url=https://dspace.lib.uom.gr/handle/2159/14899 |access-date=January 21, 2015 |archive-date=March 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318012618/https://dspace.lib.uom.gr/handle/2159/14899 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Good Things Foundation]], a UK non-profit organisation, collates data on the extent and impact of the digital divide in the UK<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research & Evidence {{!}} Good Things Foundation |url=https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/policy-and-research/research-and-evidence |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=www.goodthingsfoundation.org |language=en}}</ref> and lobbies the government to fix digital exclusion<ref>{{Cite web |title=Policy Asks to Fix the Digital Divide {{!}} Good Things Foundation |url=https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/policy-and-research/manifesto |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=www.goodthingsfoundation.org |language=en}}</ref>
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