Dr. Leslie Regan Shade & Dr. Barbara Crow GENDER, DIGITAL DIVIDES AND ICT AGENDAS IN CANADA

Transcription

1 Dr. Leslie Regan Shade & Dr. Barbara Crow GENDER, DIGITAL DIVIDES AND ICT AGENDAS IN CANADA In the last two decades Canada has been viewed as an important nation leading the way on a number of women's issues such as violence against women and pay equity. As well, Canada's progressive policies and programmes in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been taken up as a model for a number of developing nations around the world. However, despite a number of attempts to integrate gender more fully into communication programmes and policies, there is still a gender gap and digital divide in the use of technology in both paid and unpaid work, leisure, study, and employment. We would like to discuss the ways in which gender disparities continue to manifest themselves in ICT policies and practices in Canada and other industrialized nations. In particular, we are interested in how to develop policy given the changing nature of digital technologies. As more and more individuals and nations pursue wireless technologies, how do we insure women's agency in these technological developments? Early ICT policy formulations, by both public interest groups and the Canadian federal government in the 1990s, recommended that initiatives consider gender as an important category to include in universal access definitions. Although reflected in the final 1997 report of the Information Highway Advisory Council (IHAC), gender mainstreaming of Canadian Internet projects never materialized, nor did the creation of a National Access Strategy as recommended by IHAC s final report. Instead, emboldened by the promise of dot.com ventures, the government switched gears and pushed for a national strategy on e-commerce. Rhetoric changed to creating opportunities in a knowledge-based economy. Canada s national access strategy thus coalesced around Industry Canada s Connecting Canadians agenda. Public interest groups and activists have attempted to create a gender-based analysis to Canadian ICT policy. This includes earlier work from the Ad Hoc Committee for the Workshop on Access to the Information Highway, formed in January 1997 as an adjunct to a workshop, Developing a Canadian Access Strategy: Universal Access to Essential Network Services; initiatives from the Coalition for Public Information; the Ad

2 Hoc Committee for Women at Global Knowledge 1997; and the NGO Women space. Federal initiatives will also be assessed, including the Canadian International Development Agency s (CIDA) involvement in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Task Force on Gender Issues and Status of Women Canada s interventions. Although their 2003 International Women s Week theme focused on the Internet, notably absent were any recommendations towards gender mainstreaming of Canadian programs operating under the Connectedness agenda of the government. This will be the focus of the second objective of this research presentation. Canadian digital divide programs have as their goal the promotion of economic development while nurturing social cohesion. Although several hundred million dollars have been spent in these programs in support of some 10,000 community ICT initiatives, there has been remarkably little evaluation. We are interested in exploring and understanding what has been achieved in these programmes. What difficulties have been encountered? What are the effects on community networking practices? As one of the Co-Investigators of the recently funded Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), a 3- year project funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council s Initiative for the New Economy.3 i Dr. Shade will provide a preliminary assessment of whether and how gender has been mainstreamed into federally-funded community based ICT programs, and suggest an evaluative framework that incorporates gender. As well, we will briefly assess the Canadian government s contribution to the December 2003 WSIS Summit, Canadian civil society contributions to policy input, how and if gender mainstreaming was a part of the Canadian government and civil society agenda, and what initiatives (government and civil society) are being planned for Tunis 2005, and how and if gender is integral to the policymaking process and is an intrinsic facet of policy conceptualizations. Moll and Shade have argued that Canadian policy consultation for WSIS 2003 was insufficient, and that policymaking was conducted in a top-down fashion. ii Finally, another critical issue relevant to the digital divide is the fast-paced development of mobile technologies. Although Canada has one of the most developed, inexpensive and expansive cable communication systems, mobile technologies have not been as

3 popular as they have been in other nations such as Japan, Great Britain and India. However, it is clear that mobile technologies such as WiFi may be a critical development in creating and maintaining public spaces for wireless communications. We would like to explore the programmes and policies the Canadian government has in place in their pursuit of mobile technologies and how gender, race and abilities are constructed in relation to them. i CRACIN is a collaborative partnership between an interdisciplinary mix of academic researchers from universities across all regions of Canada, along with international researchers in Community Informatics and ICT policy for economic and social development; the three principal federal government departments promoting the Connecting Canadians agenda; and community networking practitioners and advocates from seven of the major Canadian CN initiatives. See ii Moll, Marita and Leslie Regan Shade. (2004). Vision Impossible? The World Summit on the Information Society, pp in Seeking Convergence in Policy and Practice: Communications in the Public Interest V. 2. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Michael L. Best michael.best@inta.gatech.edu Kali, Creator and Destroyer: A Personal Recollection on Media Lab Asia Media Lab Asia endeavored to be the world s largest university research laboratory for ICT s and international development. With it routinely described as a billion dollar facility in pollyannish anticipation of huge fundraising successes the optimism of the Lab was staggering. And it certainly was the highest profile, and perhaps most interesting, South/North university collaboration in the ICT for development arena, bringing together two of the globe s biggest academic heavyweights: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology s Media Lab and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The vision of the Lab was for a unique public-private-academic partnership focused on innovation and world class research; a sort of organization never before seen. But after twelve months of operation under a formal relationship between MIT and the Government of India (GoI), the connection to MIT was severed, the Lab s expectations were downsized, and now it continues on as a strictly GoI operation, primarily working as a funding agency with a domestic constituency.

4 The inability to sustain the MIT / MLAsia connection was due mainly to two critical failures. First, the Lab was structurally unsound; it sowed seeds of failure in the contracts and framework of the Lab itself. Second, and most critically, the Lab went forward with a number of shotgun marriages; it relied on various self-interested relationships that, lacking the trust that comes from time and effort, were never strong enough to maintain the collaboration. Said another way, MLAsia ultimately fell victim to its inability to establish political and institutional sustainability. I have been conceptualizing, as have others, a sustainability typology. In my research I have noted the need for: 1. Economic or financial sustainability the aspect that probably gets the most attention in the literature. 2. Technological sustainability a fairly well appreciated problem especially as we all are routinely victimized by our own technology and its rapid rush to obsolescence. 3. Social and cultural sustainability by this I mean, in particular, equity of access issues, gender, caste, community, literacy, language, economic groups, and so forth. 4. Environmental sustainability not often directly considered in ICT for development projects, though relevant in terms of e-waste, electric power consumption, and even the carbon reducing promise of the global information infrastructure. And finally, 5. Political and institutional sustainability the nexus of relationships between the broad set of stakeholders. Time and time again it is lack of attention to this last category, political and institutional sustainability, which results in the death of a project.

5 Panayiota Tsatsou Civil Society in Greece: shaping new digital divides? The digital divides as cultural divides Implications for closing divides Investigating the Greek case this paper aims to develop an alternative perception of digital divides in developing counties and countries that still lag behind which will not stand on the side of common perception of digital divides as mostly stemming from information inequalities. The alternative perception of digital divides proposed here will rather take seriously into account the role of the cultural factor in shaping divides among states at the EU level of analysis and will, consequently, examine the impact on the policy, regulation and future evolution of the EU Information Society, in order the observed and long-standing divides across the EU to be finally closed. Hence, this paper proposes the alternative term of cultural divides suggesting that occurred policy and regulation failures in Member States, such as Greece, might largely derive from cultural differentiations and possible negative attitudes, reactions and rejections of the particular civil society (ies), rather than from political incapability and failures of the NRAs in charge. From this perspective, this paper aims at shedding light on the possible role of the civil society (ies) under scrutiny and the increasing attention that European policy-makers and regulators should pay to the goal of cultural harmonization of information cultures throughout the EU and the cultivation of an even European civil society which will be aware of ICTs, interested in the Information Society and significantly contributive to the target of stimulating the Information Society, regardless of any occurred cultural particularity and divergence. Greece is an extremely interesting case-study, as, although a full EU Member, it experiences failures in adopting consistently the EU policy on the Information Society, questioning, thus, the future of the Information Society itself and raising the digital divides issue from a rather cultural and societal perspective. Greece is relatively behind in the course towards the emergence of the Information Society, as inactivity, lack of appropriate initiatives and of preparation for the circumstances of the new emerging society risks cutting us off from European and global developments (Greek Ministry of

6 Economy and Finance, 2002). The 2002 White Paper acknowledges, therefore, the necessity for citizens participation (ibid). The 2001, 2002 & 2003 national GRNet surveys point out that mainly the lack of interest lies behind the decision of the majority of Greek people not to use computer and the Internet and not any particular fear about the cost or the consequences of these new technologies. In particular, in 2003, even more people (30.7%) than in 2002 (23.1%) state that they do not need the Internet, whereas the concern about the cost of connecting to the Internet (4.2%) appears smaller than in 2002 (9.2%), justifying, thus, the claims about a decreasing digital divide in Greece over the last few years on the one hand, and a persistent culture of low degree of interest in and involvement with new technologies, on the other (GRNet, 2003). Even the latest survey conducted in Greece in the first quarter of 2004 by the National Statistical Service (ESYE) concludes that the non-appreciation of the Internet is the main reason for people not using it (ESYE, 2004). Concluding, this paper articulates a major critique on the current EU policy process regarding the failure of the EU to recognize and adjust its policy to the existing cultural particularities of the Member States, and illustrates the role of the principles of subsidiarity and mediation on the part of the EU authorities, in order cultural particularities and their role in the full application of the EU measures in all Member States to be fully recognized. Therefore, this paper raises the question whether digital divides constitute cultural divides, questions the conventional perceptions of information inequalities and addresses the necessity of a new line of EU policy which would be culturally adjusted and fully harmonized to any particularities of the Member States, without loosing, at the same time, its broad scope and common aim throughout the EU. Sharon Strover sstrover@mail.utexas.edu Assessing Community Efforts to Reduce the Digital Divide Providing computers and Internet access to members of the community has taken several forms in many countries over the past several years. Called community networks, telecenters, community technology centers, or FreeNets, such endeavors represent a range of institutional bases, of ideological premises, of State commitments,

7 and of local empowerment. While most such efforts articulate the need for strong community involvement, scant research or evaluation has assessed the quality of that involvement. This research examines the implementation efforts of several communities as they attempted to create programs that would redress their local digital divides. The research presented here focuses on a program in which 36 communities of varying sizes in the state of Texas received up to $500,000 to establish community networks over a two-year period. Our goals in examining these communities were to assess how the various groups that submitted successful proposals to the funding agency actually implemented their programs, what sorts of accommodations they made during the periods of their grants, and the extent to which their endeavors appeared to meet their objectives. We admit candidly that the last question cannot be answered very comprehensively by our work since we would have to extend our research period to many more years in order to adequately comment on successes. However, the processes of collaboration, of organizing community resources, and of how communities actively defined their local digital divides were well documented in our research. Our research used both quantitative and qualitative data gathering strategies. We surveyed (via mail) all of the organizations involved in these projects and queried them on how their projects were organized, the sorts of problems they faced, and the strategies they adopted to solve their difficulties. These results were analyzed statistically. We also made repeated field visits to each of the 36 sites and conducted both individual and small group interviews with project managers, site coordinators, trainers and various other personnel. We also spent observational time at some of the public access facilities that these communities created, often interviewing some of the people using the equipment or attending classes. How the various cities and towns organized themselves - essentially the process features of these projects (management, access to expertise, organizing volunteers, organizing training, planning for sustainability, facilitating community participation, etc.) - is the focus in this paper. In terms of community outcomes attributable to local networking activities, we find formidable challenges facing localities. The difficulties of collaboration, of mustering and then maintaining institutional involvement and support, and the problems embedded in how dominant groups within communities the groups best equipped to apply for and obtain public grants define the people they hope to reach, are the core results addressed in this effort. We find that assumptions about

8 public access, where and how it should occur, as well as the economic development outcomes associated more broadly with computers and Internet connections, vary widely across these communities. In far too many cases, the projects we examined did not reach the constituencies they were targeting; in far too many cases, material resources dwarfed the necessary human resources. We conclude that financial resources are of limited utility in launching effective programs even though they too often become a critical focus of policy efforts. Prof Paul Foley & Dr Ximena Alfonso pdfoley@btinternet.com Social exclusion and the digital divide: A comparative international perspective on access to ICT and the provision of eservices to socially excluded groups The proposed paper draws on two research projects. The first, supported by the UK Social Exclusion Unit and the Improvement and Development Agency, is a seven language comparative study of best practice in providing access to ICT and eservices to socially excluded groups in the UK and overseas. The second study considers, in a UK context, whether ICT access enables socially excluded groups to overcome the causes of social exclusion. The framework underpinning the research and the proposed paper separates access and use issues from the provision of services to socially excluded groups, see Figure 1.

9 Initiatives to provide technology access and use Services used by socially excluded groups Benefits and enhancements created by technology adoption Awareness Access Skills & Training eservices addressing social exclusion (sustainable community, education, health, employment, benefits environment, transport etc.) Outputs, outcomes and learning Figure 1 The Access and Service Framework used in the research The international comparative study of ICT access and eservice provision is due to be completed in mid-february Further analysis will determine the precise details to be presented in the proposed paper. The project has taken a problem based approach (after discussions with the UK SEU) to investigate how countries throughout the world provide ICT access and how governments use ICT to address seven key problems associated with social exclusion. These are:- Unemployment or worklessness Crime Early years disadvantage Educational underachievement Homelessness Health inequalities Families or individuals with complex or multiple needs

10 The paper will highlight examples of good practice in the use of ICT to address these seven problems and draw out common components that contribute to success. These results will be compared with a stratified random sample of 100 UK authorities investigating the activities they have (and have not adopted) to address the digital divide and the ways they are using ICT to address these seven problems. There is frequently an uncritical presumption that Internet and ICT use by socially excluded groups is beneficial, without any real attempt to understand the relationship between users, ICT and provision of eservices. This presumption is frequently fostered and maintained by the policy push from governments to encourage the adoption and use of ICT. The second study therefore investigates the tangible economic and social benefits arising from having access and making use of the Internet and eservices. The research examined Internet use through in-depth focus group discussions with a stratified random sample of 130 socially excluded people in London. The proposed paper therefore:- Investigates the factors that influence the adoption and use of the Internet by socially excluded groups. Identifies tangible economic and social benefits arising from having access and making use of the Internet. Recommends policies and future action concerning the targeting of resources and the design and likely success of current interventions. Key results from the focus group study include:- The route to obtaining home Internet access was often a two stage process. The first stage was the decision to try the Internet at a public access point. The second stage was the decision to purchase a computer for use at home. The Internet and developing computing skills was a stimulus to start learning again or improving literacy for many socially excluded people.