Digital Divide
The consumerization of IT is crossing over to education. A new wave is, however, shaking up the academe, one that most educational institutions are not yet prepared to take up: gamefying the curriculum.
One billion phones with access to educational apps will be given away to the world's poorest nations starting this year. The ambitious project was an initiative of the Young Global Leaders(YGL), a World Economic Forum community of 700 social entrepreneurs that address specific challenges of public interest.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has launched a web portal for IT training, scholarship and ICT-related job opportunities aimed at encouraging girls and women to choose a career in technology.
If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language, says Salman Rushdie. Asia's Babel of more than a thousand languages spoken by 3.8 billion people is fast emerging as its greatest asset, with a little help from technology.
With the launch of TechSoup Asia in Malaysia, the non-profit community in the country will now have access software donations from global IT companies.
Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has launched a project for the improvement of computer usage and Internet access in 400 public libraries and 1,500 cultural post offices across 40 provinces.
The socio-economic gap that has traditionally divided societies is now encroaching into the technology field and spurring even bigger inequalities. Between those who have access to technology and those who do not lies a huge difference in opportunities that governments are acknowledging the need for intervention.
Larry Irving, one of the nation’s leading thinkers on technology and innovation, is joining HP as vice president of Global Government Affairs, effective September 8.
As Commissioner for the Philippine Commission on ICT, Angelo Tim Diaz de Rivera is mandated to look at ways in which the government can use social networking and other Internet tools to engage citizens and businesses. In this presentation, he describes the challenges his team faces as they look at the web as a collaborative media for engaging citizens and businesses operating in the country.
Independent research and advisory firm, Government Insights, an IDC company, recently released the study, "ICT Ecology Phase 2 - Policy Bridges to the Digital Divide" which offers governments a policy toolbox that they can tap on as they implement digital inclusion strategies.
