Mobile and Digital Divide
Como era de se esperar, a disseminação de tecnologias móveis (notadamente os celulares) está ajudando a diminuir o fosso digital. Embora haja inúmeros problemas, o relatório das Nações Unidas aponta para a melhoria econômica e social em alguns países. Dados sobre o Brasil mostram que o país está em 81° lugar em um ranking de 190 países que mede a penetração dos telefones celulares e na 72ª posição em penetração da internet (via Estadão).
Vejam matéria da BBC
AP
“Mobile phones and net access are helping narrow the gulf between rich and poor nations, says a UN report.
(…) Mobile phone users in developing nations now make up 58% of handset subscribers worldwide, it said. But it warned that the digital divide meant that developing nations still lagged far behind richer countries.
(…) The annual Information Economy report by the UN body looks at the way that science and technology can drive long-term economic growth.
(…)’In Africa, where the increase in terms of the number of mobile phone subscribers and penetration has been greatest, this technology can improve the economic life of the population as a whole,’ it said.
(…)The take up of mobiles was allowing developing nations to ‘leapfrog’ some generations of technology such as fixed line telephones and reap more immediate rewards, said the report.
Greater use of computers in small businesses in countries such as Thailand made staff boost productive, it said. A study of Thai manufacturing firms showed that a 10% increase in computer literate staff produced a 3.5% productivity gain.
The developing world was also catching up in terms of net availability. In 2002, said UNCTAD, net availability was ten times higher in developing nations. In 2006, net availability was only six times higher.
But despite the improvements mobiles and greater computer use were bringing in their wake, the report warned that a big gulf remained between rich and poor.(…)