As Diana Mordock wrote:
> I suppose I have other concerns about technology, even though I
> thank myself daily for getting wired and finding this group. I
> suppose I have a concern for the widening gap between "them that
> have" and "them that don't."
Let's not fool ourselves by saying that technology is getting cheaper,
that we're putting PC's in public places like libraries, and so the
widening gap between 'them that have' and 'them that don't' is not as
bad as we think. It's getting worse.
Take example Ben shared when he and his friends went to the Star Trek
movie.
>I'm wearing my pager, carrying my cell phone, and packing my notebook
>computer (not to mention my PDA so I can easily jot down notes when
>ideas come to me). One friend has his portable HAM radio, his
>notebook computer, and his pager. His HAM radio station is hooked to
>the Internet, providing him with really cheap access. My friend
>decides to log into his UNIX server and check his E-Mail while we're
>driving down the highway. He plugs his HAM radio into his notebook
>computer, and logs into his machine. Yep, there's E-Mail.
The portability of the equipment is the newest technology. When you
look at people adapting it into their everyday life, and others can't
afford a PC at home, much less an internet account. This is the
continuing gap in "them that have" and "them that don't".
And we're only talking about North America. What about other
countries where the basics, like electicity or phone service, is not
reliable or even available.
Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GScherling_GMS_TPN
--GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>