Comparing
Government and NGO Digital Inclusion Initiatives in the
Joseph Straubhaar,
Fabio Ferreira, Jeremiah Spence
Abstract:
This paper will provide a
comparative analysis of initiatives to overcome the digital divide in the
cities of
Keywords
Digital Divide, Information Society, Comparative Studies
Introduction
The
concept of Information Society has been used to express profound changes in the
production paradigm; the use of information as a main resource in human
relations (economic, political and social); and the use of new communication
technologies to promote a “new” society.
However,
it will be demonstrated in this paper that although useful in delineating the main
characteristics of changes, brought with new technologies, those approaches do
not take in account that the coming of an Information Society does not necessarily
imply profound changes in economic and social inequalities. Issues related to
inequality, and asymmetrical access to information and technology are still
important and evident. Castells (1996),
Jambeiro (2000), Straubhaar (2004) and others, although do not deny Information
Society as a metaphor, or as a concept, demonstrate that the network society reproduce
traditional inequalities. Inequalities, however, will be expressed in the
uneven relationship between those who have and those who do not have access to information
technologies.
Governments
and civil society are both aware of those inequalities and the necessity of “catching
up” with the informational trend. Initiatives to reduce the “technological gap”
are based on the perception that if a country or a community is disconnected
from information networks it will loose competitiveness in the long term.
Programs to reduce
the digital divide are in many cases stimulated or promoted by governments. But
they also emerge from civil society both in NGOs and business initiatives.
Government, NGOs, and businesses sometimes work together and this can be
expressed in diverse forms of partnerships among them.
This paper will
analyze some of those initiatives to promote digital inclusion. It is based in
a survey conducted in
The
UFBA-Texas project started in 2003, and already produced a book with several
articles on digital divide on both cities. One of those articles, from Marco
Brandao and Helena Silva, dealt specifically with the data set (used in this
article) collected in
Methodology
At
the beginning of the UFBA-Texas project, the group at the
a)
Brandao
and Silva (2004) in their article Inclusao
Digital, Conceito e Contexto: uma Abordagem Preliminar em Salvador-BA, already
described the methodology used in the city of
The
questionnaire applied between July and November of 2003 at
Marcos
Brandao, coordinated a team of undergraduate students and applied the
questionnaire in the neighborhoods above. Basically, the group divided the
neighborhoods among them, and proceeded by foot locating any facility offering
internet/computer access in the territory. Whenever they located one of those
facilities, they applied a questionnaire.
In the end, a total of 35 questionnaires[1] were applied over the selected neighborhoods, and they covered institutions varying from schools to cybercafés. The interviews were conducted with the managers of the institutions surveyed.
b)
Cunningham’s (2004) et al article Defining
the Digital Divide from below: local initiatives in Austin Texas, describes
the data collected for
Digital Divide
Even if the Information, Network (Castells, 2000), or Postindustrial society (Bell, 1973) is denied by some as a
theoretical framework (Garnham, 2004; Bolano,
2000; Robins & Webster, 2004), the fact that new technologies of information
and communication can increase the gap between rich and poor is undeniable. We
should refer to this gap, as the digital divide.
The
new information and communication technologies pervasiveness and the risk of
being left behind prompt governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
to set initiatives aimed to overcome the gap between those who have access to technology
and who are excluded of it.
Several
green books on information society were established as government initiatives
to prepare their regions to the “new informational era”. The Brazilian Livro Verde da Sociedade da
Informacao[2] (2000)
is an example of this kind of attempt. It was an initiative to start a program
of information society in
Whereas
the Green Book was a federal initiative, there are other initiatives related to
the information society in
According to Strover
(2004) “efforts that connected job development programs or educational outreach
with computer training assumed the label of community technology centers.” (p.
466). When referring to the use of the term telecenter outside the
In
a reference to the Internet development in
“Telecenters are
becoming an almost universal vehicle to enhance access to the Internet, in
particular for low-income groups.
In
the case of the Brazilian initiatives, the idea is not only to democratize
access to technology like Straubhaar describes, but also to improve peoples’
life and promote citizenship. Promoting citizenship using telecenters is a goal
of CDI (Straubhaar et al, 2004) and
both Cidade Mae and Liceu, Jambeiro and Ferreira et al (Global Fusion, 2004).
Straubhaar
et al (2004) demonstrates the synergy
between state, private businesses, and NGOs in trying to overcome the digital
divide. This synergy, however, does not diminish the role of the state. The state
is, and will continue to be, an important actor in promoting public goods, even
though it will be reformulated to respond to specific challenges that come with
the information society (Ferreira, 2004).
Focusing
not only on access, but literacy, is an important focal point for digital
inclusion initiatives, no matter if those initiatives are government programs, telecenters,
or a combination of both.
Strover
et al (2004) criticizes the
technological optimism that believes on the fact that the simple provision of
computers will develop communities and generate their well-being. According to
her, the attempt to overcome the digital divide through the simple provision of
access is a mistake and a simple answer. What is necessary is to give communities
the opportunity to articulate their own use of the technology provided.
The Brazilian Green Book (2000) differentiates between provision of access to technology, and technology (digital) literacy. According to the Green Book, technology access is represented by the provision of infrastructure and access, but it is just a first although necessary step. Once individuals have access to technology, they should learn how to interact with them, being capable of creating their own meaning. The capacity of using informational and communication tools in an actively rather than passively is the only way to overcome the digital divide.
In the case of
Among those, only NGOs, private telecenters and schools would be characterized as telecenters in the sense of provision of access or literacy regarding information. Even tough, only the NGOs would be considered as telecenters that are worried in overcoming a divide (economic or digital) through technology usage.
It
was not surprising to find travel agencies offering Internet access, especially
in the Pelourinho neighborhood, due to the area’s tourist appeal. There were a
total of three travel agencies, all located in the historical district
(Pelourinho area). Those travel agencies were concerned in providing Internet
services for tourists with prices that would vary from one to three reais[4] per
hour[5].
Among the travel agencies, the quantity of desktops varied from three to six
and, in all cases, there were high speed connections of 512 K.
The category “hotels”
is referring both to youth hosts, and small hotels in the area, also called in
Portuguese “pousadas”. There were a total of three youth hosts, with the
quantity of desktops varying from three to six, all with high speed Internet connections
(512 K). The prices were varying from one to three reais per hour. As expected
the clientele for the hotels sites were tourists, especially those who were
hosted at them.
An interesting
finding was the existence of multipurpose sites. The category “multipurpose
sites” is referring to a series of business such as small bookstores and copy
shops. There were a total of five multipurpose sites and basically they shared
the characteristic of providing Internet access as a complementary service to
their clientele. In this sense, they are close to the concept of commercial
telecenters, the difference is that they do not provide only Internet access
but offer other services as well. The medium price to access Internet on
multipurpose sites was 2.5 reais per hour. Multipurpose sites clientele was a
mix of community members, adults in general, and tourists. Among them we can
find rental stores (film), stationary retailers, copy shops, and others.
The commercial
telecenters were places providing both Internet access and use of office tools
(such as world, excel and powerpoint). Those commercial telecenters
differentiate themselves from the concept of traditional telecenters since they
are for profit organizations. Only one
commercial telecenter was found in the researched area. It had ten desktops,
offering Internet connection of 512 K. It also had one printer, one scanner,
one webcamera, and a CD burner. It charged 4 reais for 1 hour of use. It also provided computer
training. Initially it was expected to find more of those types of sites, but it
was clear later that the small business that were providing only Internet
access, incorporated practices were created from other type of small business
(that are represented in the “multicommerce sites”).The goal of the commercial
telecenters was to supply the people’s demands for word processors, use of the Internet,
print jobs, or just play games. Commercial telecenters as small businesses are
similar to the Cabinas of
Cybercafes are
different from commercial telecenters and multicommerce because they are in coffee
shops, where people gather to have fun and meet other people, while accessing
the Internet. Cybercafes are more expensive: the prices for Internet access
were varying from R$ 3 to R$ 4. In all the four cybercafes customers were
primarily tourists. All cybercafes were located at Pelourinho, and all had 10
desktops with 512K connection to the Internet.
There were a total
of six in NGOs in the sample region. Those NGOs generally had 7 or more desktops.
Only one NGO had high speed Internet connection while the others were using a
dial-up connection of 56K. Just one NGO did not have a printer. Just one had a
webcamera. The NGOs goals were different
from the other types of organizations. The most obvious difference was that
NGOs looked at their community members as citizens, not as consumers. All NGOs main
goal was to promote social inclusion through the digital inclusion. NGOs
clientele is also different and in most cases was described as members of the
community. In two of the NGOs the clientele was described specifically as low
income people. In one of them, the specific clientele was teenagers. Three NGOs
had the state government as sponsor, one of them the municipal government, and one
of them a private company. Two of the NGOs were community sponsored (the computer
classes were charged to cover operational costs). Three of the NGOs were
located at Liberdade (
Schools were also part of the sample. There were a total of eight schools in the sample, all of them public schools. All the schools had more than ten computers and most of them had printers available. One school had a projector; only one of them had a CD-burner; one of them had a DVD-burner; and again only one had a web-camera. Schools built telecenters as a consequence of both public policies, and community needs. The money for building the telecenters came from state and federal government (the majority of it), although there was a case of partnership with IBM. The main purpose of the sites on the schools was social inclusion and students’ education. While visiting the schools the researchers noticed that although the government provided the entire infrastructure, in many cases the computer laboratories were not in use simply because teachers did not have the skills to do so. In other cases, the access to the site was restricted to students what made difficult to characterize them as open (for the community) telecenters.
The
next table summarizes some of the data explained above regarding
|
Organizations |
Goals |
Clientele |
Revenue |
|
Travel
Agencies (3) |
Serve
tourists (3) |
Tourists
(3) |
Charge
internet access (3) |
|
Motels
(3) |
Serve
tourists (2) don't know (1) |
Tourists
(3) |
Charge internet
access (2) don't
know (1) |
|
Cybercafé
(4) |
Commerce
(4) |
Tourists
(4) |
Charge
internet access (4) |
|
Schools
(17) |
Social
inclusion (6) don't know (1) NA (9) Commerce
(1) |
Teenagers
(2) NA (9) Children
(1) Community
Members (5) |
Government
funds (17) |
|
Video
rental store (1) |
Commerce |
Community
members |
Charge
internet access |
|
Multi-commerce
(7) |
Commerce
(4) don't
know (1) Social inclusion (2) |
Community
members (3) Adults (2) Tourists
(2) |
Charge
internet access (7) |
|
NGO (5) |
Social
inclusion (5) |
Community
members (2) Teenagers (1) Poor (2) |
Sponsor
(3) charge
training (4) |
|
Stationer
(2) |
Commerce
(2) |
Community
members (1) Adults
(1) |
Charge
internet access (2) |
|
Hostel
(1) |
Commerce
(1) |
Tourists
(1) |
Charge
internet access (1) |
Cunningham et al (2004) describes
Austin as a “unique city in that there are over 50 public access
Internet sites located in libraries, public housing units, community centers,
nonprofits, and public schools.” According to Cunningham et al (2004), the majority of the initiatives
in community networks took place in the segregated East side of
In
regard to the
Several
city level initiatives can be found in
In order to minimize
its growing digital divide, the city of
“AFN was created to develop a public
infrastructure in sites such as libraries and non-profits throughout the
community and supply them with computers, Internet access, training and
technical support. This initial effort
was made possible through cash and equipment donations from local corporations
and businesses.”
In 1998, the city
of
Finally, Austin
Public Libraries played an important role in providing free internet access to
the community. The library program is successfully providing computer access in
all of its branches, and the program received financial incentives from the
city, the state, community, and businesses from its beginning (Cunningham et al, 2004).
The
goal of the survey in
|
Organizations |
Goals |
Clientele |
Revenue |
|
Libraries
(9) |
Access, and
some training (9) |
Community
members (6) Youth (3)
|
Government
Funds (city), Corporate Grants (Dell-WFY), NGO support (Austin Freenet) (9) |
|
Community
Centers (2) |
Access, and
training (1) Access,
and social inclusion (1) |
Seniors
(1) Immigrants
(1) |
Government
Funds (city) (1) Government
Funds (city grant), NGO support (Austin Freenet) (1) |
|
Apartment
complex (1) |
Access,
and training (1) |
Adult
residents (1) |
Unknown
(1) |
|
NGOs (7) |
Access,
and training (3) Workforce
development, high-tech training (1) Computer
and internet access for job search (1) Only
training (2) |
Community
members (4) Youth (1) Unemployed
(1) Minorities
(1) |
Corporate
grants (2) Government
Funds (city), Corporate Grants, NGO support (2) NGO
support (Austin Freenet) (1) Government
Funds (city, county) (1) Government
Funds (federal) (1) |
What
is evident from
NGOs presented
more variability in terms of goals than the libraries. Although computer access
and training was still the primary issue, workforce development, technology
training, job search, and only training, all appear as a category. The
clientele is primarily constituted of community members, but is more diverse
than in the case of the libraries: one institution mentioned minorities, and another
unemployed people, as its primary clientele. Support for NGOs was coming from
government (city and state) grants, business grants, and Austin Free Net, a similar
pattern can be found in regard to the libraries (even though for libraries the
main financial resources come from
The two community centers from the sample presented characteristics similar to the NGOs.
The two cases in
perspective
In order to compare the two cases we chose the four main areas in the tables above: organization, goals, clientele, and revenue. Although the data collected in both cities is more comprehensive than data, those aspects were chosen because we wanted to emphasize the following aspects in the comparison:
a. Organization – organization was not only the unit of analysis, but also allowed us to verify what types or arrangements, interests, groups, were getting involved in providing solutions or taking advantage of the digital divide;
b. Goals - the type of service that was offered in each city and its goals was chosen because the two cities and countries present a very diverse socio-economic reality, and we wanted to see how it would impact on initiatives;
c. Clientele – this would allow us to analyze whether the minorities in each cities were been reached by the programs;
d. Revenue – financial resources were an essential feature because by identifying the sources of revenue we could see if there was a similar pattern in the two cities.
That said it is
possible for us to start analyzing the two cases. In general lines, one might
say that the initiatives undertaken by the time of the research in the city of
A striking
difference in the two cases is in regard to the role of libraries. Out of
nineteen organizations in the city of
Still
in regard to type of organization, in the case of
The comparison within the other categories described above, goals, clientele, and revenue, will be described below.
Goals
The next two
tables summarize the goals of the organizations investigated in both
|
Goals |
Total of goals |
|
Goals |
Total of goals |
|
Serve tourists |
5 |
|
Access |
15 |
|
Commerce |
13 |
|
Training |
17 |
|
Social
inclusion |
13 |
|
Social
Inclusion |
1 |
|
Don't
know |
12 |
|
Workforce
development |
2 |
|
Total |
43 |
|
Total |
35 |
2 – Clientele
The results above
provide interesting accounts in regard to clientele. For example, the fact that
Another curious
aspect when comparing goals in the two samples is the fact that at
Clientele
In spite of the differences in terms of goals, there are many similarities in regard to clientele. When analyzing the tables and charts below, it is necessary, however, to keep in mind that although the clientele in the two samples may converge in terms of denomination, they might be serving completely different purposes.
|
Clientele
|
Total
of Clientele |
|
Clientele
|
Total
of Clientele |
|
Community
members |
12 |
|
Community
members |
11 |
|
Youth |
4 |
|
Youth |
4 |
|
Tourists |
13 |
|
Seniors |
1 |
|
Adults |
3 |
|
Adult
Residents |
1 |
|
Low
income |
2 |
|
Immigrants |
1 |
|
Not
Available |
9 |
|
Unemployed |
1 |
|
Total |
31 |
|
Minorities |
1 |
|
|
Total |
20 |
In both cities ‘community members’ is the most important clientele, twelve in Salvador, and eleven in Austin. Those numbers increase if we consider that youth, adults, and seniors that are considered as clientele, may be supposed to be part of the communities as well.
When
we look at the data in a percentage perspective, however, in the
The fact that
tourists constitute a specific segment (30% of organizations dedicated
primarily to them) is unique to
Another
important issue is the fact that 21% of the organizations in
Revenue
The significance
of commercial solutions in the
Whereas commercial
sources were unique to
The charts and tables for revenue can be found below:
|
Revenue
|
Total
of Revenue |
|
Revenue
|
Total
of Revenue |
|
Charge
Internet access |
20 |
|
Government
(city) |
15 |
|
Only
sponsor |
1 |
|
Government
(county) |
3 |
|
Sponsor
plus charging training |
2 |
|
Government
(federal) |
1 |
|
Charging
training |
2 |
|
Corporate
Grants |
13 |
|
Government |
17 |
|
NGO
support |
13 |
|
Not
Available |
1 |
|
unknown |
1 |
|
Total |
43 |
|
Total |
46 |
Note that in the case of Salvador there were some corporate or international organizations grants that are listed in the tables above under ‘sponsors’, however in the case of Austin corporate grants were significant with 33% of revenue sources.
Conclusions
It is clear from
the data above that although there are some points of similarity in
At
The major similarity in both cases however, lies in the fact that in both cities the initiatives are based on local development and the clientele is in the majority of the cases the local community.
At
Salvador NGOs were concerned not only with digital inclusion but with social
inclusion per se, and the rescue/construction of citizenship. That is really
interesting when contrasted with
This paper consolidated
the comparative effort undertaken by the
Finally, we should
recognize the support provided by
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