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.
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