September 2008 Archives

What precisely does the Digital Divide--this sweeping, seemingly all-encompassing designation--mean? It's bandied about enough, it's catchy enough--rolls nicely off the tongue--but it's has now also become ubiquitous enough to be almost meaningless, like the cliché--once so apt--that's lost its sting.

And yet: Government 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever release the thing will have reached once it finally gets its entire act together, will not--axiomatically, I should add--get there while Digital Divides still exist: a fully digitized citizenry, by definition, would be a prerequisite to true digital government.

Digital Divide Defined

So, I ask again, what, precisely, is the Digital Divide?

Knee-jerk reply of Michael Powell, former US Federal Communications Commission Chairman: It's like a Mercedes divide, "I would like to have one, but I can't afford one." About as simplistic as you can get.

My knee-jerk reply: Many different things.

Digital Connect

Okay, let's come at this from another angle: what's the opposite of the Digital Divide? What would constitute a full Digital Connect?

In other words, what does the Ideal Digital Citizen (IDC) look like? It's important that we establish this, for everything that separates the IDC from the current analog, if you will, citizen (where- or whoever he or she may be) is in fact the Digital Divide--or, more accurately--the Digital Divides.

IDC Ingredients

Let's reel of the easy ones first:

Computer -- Yes, our IDC has to have one of those, and has know how to turn it on and off.

Software -- The IDC has to own and know a few of those, and he or she has to feel comfortable enough with them, and trust them well enough to find them of use in his or her own life. They must be more than toys, in other words.

Broadband Connection (Access) -- Yes, it has to be broadband. Our IDC can no longer live with 56K, it just won't do the trick--for one, the average government web page requires something like 30 seconds to download over a 56K modem. Not workable.

Skill and Training -- Our IDC is at home with the Internet, knows how to navigate and feels at home there.

Trust -- Our IDC feels secure in using the internet, and "dares" do online banking, investment, even voting, knowing it will be secure.

Purpose -- Our IDC feels that both the computer and the Internet enhances his or her survival, that he or she lives better for them in all strata of life. Has "What's in it for me?" figured out, and it came down on the side of Digital Connect.

Awareness -- Our IDC is aware of the many sites offered by States and Municipalities to interact and do business with.

Time -- Our IDC has sufficient time to spend online to exercise his or her Digital Citizenry.
Responsibility -- Important point: our IDC must give a damn. Must in fact care enough about local, state and national issues to keep informed, and to as requested submit his digital votes or input.

A Given?

Now, it seems to be a given that this would be a desirable creature to have around. But is it? Just asking.

If governments and ISPs were truly successful in morphing our analog hordes in to model IDCs--do we look at a better world? I don't know, but it's something to consider: Do we in fact want the digital divide bridged?

Back at the Ranch

Assuming, however, for argument's sake, that we do want the IDC around, in significant numbers, what factors play a part in the divides?

Here's a cursory list:

• Income
• Occupation
• Gender
• Age
• Education
• Geographic centrality
• Ethnicity and race
• Religiosity
• Language
• Family structure
• Physical capacity
• Frequency
• Time online
• Purpose
• Skills
• Autonomy
• Affordability
• Competitive market structure
• Ownership and density of computers and websites
• Communication infrastructure

And others.

In this blog I simply want to state the problem as I see it. I will explore the various divides in more detail in other blogs and articles.

More and more attention is being put on raising good digital citizens, both here and abroad. The effort, which began in the U.K. in the mid-90s, is now making its way onto our shores.

I just came across a great article written by Matt Villano about just this topic, published in The Journal. Well worth perusing.

And while you're at it, you should visit Digizen.org, the U.K. site which has taken good digital citizenry on as a mission, and doing a good job of it, to boot.

Text unto others ...

What is the most mobile and ubiquitous computer in the world? You guessed it: your cell phone.

Perhaps not so slowly, and definitely surely, law enforcement throughout the country are recognizing the truth of this, and are now opening channels for the digital citizen to reach them in need or to report emergencies or crimes observed.

The very first day Boston police began accepting text messaging, a text message tip led to the arrest of a New Hampshire homicide suspect. In Ventura County, California, authorities have apprehended several wanted felons through text and online tips.

"It's the future," says Cmdr. Michael Charbonnier, the Boston Police Department's contact for Crime Stoppers, an international program dedicated to rewarding anonymous tipsters for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Since the Boston Police Department implemented its text program last year, tips have doubled, with nearly half coming in from text messaging. To date, in 2008, the department has logged 720 phone tips and 698 text-messaging tips.

"Sometimes it's the only info and sometimes it's the piece of the puzzle that leads to the arrest," Charbonnier says. "But it's a reality in policing. Some people just aren't comfortable with calling 9-1-1." The success of the program rests on keeping messengers anonymous.

The trend first took off in Boston after Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis showed up at a shooting and watched as bystanders with cell phones text messaged friends the news.

Since then, at least 70 law-enforcement agencies have added text messaging to their tip lines and 100 others are in the process of adopting a text-messaging system.

For years, the Los Angeles Police Department has received crime tips from anonymous callers nervously hoping to remain so as they whisper their way through intimidating one-on-one Q&As with police tip-takers.

But in a bid to get more young people to come forward with information to help snare bad guys, the LAPD may soon join the growing number of law-enforcement agencies that are encouraging people to text message tips via cell phones.

"The younger generation is very text savvy," says Lt. Mathew St. Pierre, head of the LAPD's investigative analysis section.

St. Pierre, whose unit looks at what technologies are best suited for the Police Department, said it's considering setting up a text and online tip service, but also says there are no immediate plans to do so.

However, last year, the LAPD began working with a company to develop a 9-1-1 system that would accept cell-phone pictures from witnesses.

Meanwhile, while Los Angeles is playing catch-up, dozens of police agencies from Boston to San Diego are taking anonymous tips online and via text messages.

San Diego is betting on text messaging to drive up tips beginning in September. By the time first school bell rings, 150,000 high school and middle school students will own school ID cards that instruct them to text CRIMES to report everything from drug pushers to iPod thieves.

"We are hoping they are more comfortable texting than go through the whole dialogue on the phone interacting with a tip-taker," says San Diego police Officer James Johnson.

San Diego County launched a text and a similar web version of the program in April and is already is seeing 10-15% of all tips come in over the Internet. Without advertising.

"It's been the surprise of the electronic boom for us," he said. "For whatever reason, people are more comfortable getting on the computer and sending us information over the web."

And the same no doubt holds true for your cell phone.

According to the West Seattle Herald, at least one Seattle councilman has grown tired of managing in the dark.

During the six months that Bruce Harrell has been a Seattle City Council member he has grown frustrated with the limited feedback he gets from the community.

While there are always a few voices that will be heard--and won't take no for an answer--they are not in the majority and does not necessarily provide a balanced perspective from the majority of the city.

"Most people (in Seattle) are either enjoying their lives or struggling, and they don't have the time or resources to be committed to process," Harrell said. "That doesn't mean they don't have an opinion though."

In response Harrell is now developing an online Citizen Engagement Portal where he hopes to record the needs and opinions of a larger group of Seattle citizens. Once in place, the portal will enable visitors to the city's Web site to offer their feedback in an electronic polling format.

"I think it will allow the City Council to accurately understand the pulse of the city." Harrell said. "I think we sometimes get out of touch. We need to be better than this as the City Council."

Harrell has stressed that listening is a crucial aspect of being a fair and wise leader, but says that currently, at a guess, he hears from less than 5 percent of Seattle's population on different issues.

Other members of the City Council support Harrell's efforts. Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin said he is excited about getting more Seattle residents involved in their city.

"We don't reach the broader population," Conlin said. "We want to be contacted by, not only the really concerned people, but by the entire population."

At this time approximately 83 percent of Seattle residents own a computer and use the internet, making it one of the most wired cities in the country. But Harrell is still concerned about those who do not have internet access--those on the other side of this comparatively narrow digital divide.

"We're not trying to neglect those people," Harrell said, "and we will continue to look into connecting with them."

Perhaps it is not the lack of broadband access, or Wi-Fi spots that comprise the largest digital divide, perhaps it's the lack of confidence in the digital medium itself.

In a recent survey nearly half of Californians polled--a full 44 percent--said they never shop online, and another 32 percent said they do so only rarely.

Only 19 percent said they shop online a few times a month, and 4 percent a few times a week.

Many of those surveyed do have access to the Internet, but said they use it primarily to gather information and read news.

One reason for Californians' reluctance to use the Web for shopping may be that they care more about privacy than the general population, according to Chris Hoofnagle, a staff attorney at Berkeley's Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, which had the university conduct the poll.

The numbers in the poll support that idea. People who favor the passage of strong privacy laws are even less willing to shop online--48 percent said they never do--and those who said they don't care much about privacy shop online more often.

Responses to the survey were weighted to represent all Californians--not just the ones in Silicon Valley--by age, gender, ethnicity and education, although everybody who participated was over 18.

I would venture to say that anyone who is reluctant to shop online for privacy reasons would also be reluctant to stand up and be digitally counted as a citizen utilizing state and local online systems to interact with their governments.

Food for digital thought. 

It's refreshing to see that digital citizenry is on the rise not only in the U.S. and Europe but in South Africa as well. The third Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) -- an Indaba is an important conference held by the leaders of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa -- is now underway in Grahamstown, South Africa, where over 150 digital citizens have gathered to take a closer look at the technologies that now and in the future will provide all Africans a digital voice.

This year's theme is "Technology for the Digital Citizen" and the conference focuses not only on what is said, and who is saying it, but also on how best to say it.

The conference recognizes that with the numerous new media technologies available to citizens, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify which we should take note of and which we should waste no time on; therefore, one of the conference goals is to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to highlight those technologies that so far have proven to truly empower Africa's digital citizens.

The South African digital voice is challenged to a higher degree than here in the U.S. or in Europe by limited broadband access and nation-wide budget constraints, and another goal of the conference is to survey and share where and how best to access inexpensive Internet and how best to use other free mobile technologies.

I salute the DCI for recognizing the importance of digital citizenry and for taking the steps necessary to bring one about.

If you're wondering when to take Social Security benefits, help just arrived in the form of a nice addition to the Social Security Administration's interaction with the baby boomer: a new online calculator for estimating your personal retirement benefits.

The Retirement Estimator asks you to enter your name, Social Security number and a few other pieces of personal data, and from that produces estimates that are based on your actual Social Security earnings record. But be aware that retirement estimates are estimates. They may vary, if not much, from the actual benefit you may receive in the future because:

• Your Social Security earnings record is constantly being updated;
• The SSA calculators use different parameters and assumptions (e.g., different stop work ages, future earnings projections, etc.); and
• Your actual future benefit will be adjusted for inflation.

The good thing is that you don't have to enter years of earnings history. This data is already in the calculator's database. (You will, however, have to enter your 2007 income.)

This tool also allows you to play around with retirement scenarios to see what you'd get from Social Security depending on the age at which you decide to retire. So it beats the annual statement the government sends you.

One caveat: If you expect to retire years down the road, you need to estimate your future average annual earnings to get an accurate picture of your Social Security benefits. So, the closer you are to actual retirement, the more accurate the estimate will be.

In choosing when to retire, says Jean Setzfand, director of financial security for AARP, it is important to have a realistic picture of your finances and the cost of living. "This gives you a good gauge," she says.