May 16, 2005
(Computerworld)
For about 700 million of us, the past 10 years have been a rush. The Internet, broadband and cheap computing devices have changed the way we work, live and play. The other 5.6 billion people on the planet have missed the party. On their side of the digital divide, Google is not a verb, and Spam still comes in a can.
This issue was reinforced in a February 2005 draft report published by the World Bank. The report looked at the current state of the digital divide, particularly as it relates to communication tools, and found that while some progress has been made, much work remains. It determined that in developing countries, the number of Internet users was just 40% of the worldwide average, the number of PCs per capita less than one-third, and the number of Internet hosts less than one-tenth. It concluded that the developing world's need for additional infrastructure investment exceeds $100 billion in the next five years alone.
But as The Economist recently noted, closing the digital divide doesn't start by handing everyone a computer or a PDA. It starts by addressing and resolving the digital divide's fundamental triggers, the biggest of which, I believe, is education. Dealing with the problems developing nations face in providing quality education to their people is a monumental task. But if a community of people helps by virtue of their jobs, wealth, passion or expertise, it can be accomplished. Think of it as "open-sourcing" the problem of education.
We know this can be done in education because it is being done -- witness Java Community Process, Unix, Linux and the Web.
It's being done by Nicholas Negroponte, who has made the $100 laptop his personal mission and has persuaded some giant tech firms, such as AMD, to come along.
It's being done by Jimmy Wales and his volunteer authors and editors who are making Wikipedia one of the best one-stop reference sources on the Internet.
And it's being done at Sun, where over a year ago we founded the Global Education and Learning Community with the goal of bringing academics, politicians and businesspeople together to share best practices and content in learning. This is one way we hope to create a freely accessible body of basic education content. This is a grass-roots effort that has garnered support from countries around the world, whose 1,600-plus members are currently engaged in over 200 projects to improve the state of education in developing nations.
Clearly, then, the problem isn't that it can't be done. The problem is that we need to get the right people involved.
The formula for success has three components: access, technology and tools. Here are 10 areas within those three components where we can start an open-source education project:
Access
1. Provide network access.The haves are opening up entire communities to wireless broadband networks; we need the have-nots to be on an equal footing.
2. Share content. Textbook publishers and libraries, how about open-sourcing some of your intellectual property so that students can access core curricula and course materials without spending huge sums for it? Look at MIT -- its courses are available online for free, and last time I checked, it wasn't having any trouble with enrollment.
3. Create partnerships to help companies on the other side automate and digitize.
4. Put expertise on the front lines. Like other delicate and wonderful things, people go bad if left on a shelf. Help yours stay fresh and healthy by getting them out of the office -- for a year, a semester, a week or a day -- and into classrooms to share with the next generation.
Technology
5. Make it cheap, cheap, cheap.
6. Make it portable. Think thin clients and laptops, not desktops; cell phones, not land lines. Think about bringing access to people as Sun did with a lab on a bus that toured 15,000 schools in Argentina, giving 4.5 million students their first exposure to computers.
7. Make it durable. AMD's Personal Internet Communicator, for example, is sealed, doesn't need a fan, uses a low-power chip set and has a fixed software stack. It's easy to service and has self-diagnosing and repair abilities.
Tools
8. Utilize the operating system to the fullest. Operating systems represent the starting point. Without them, content can't be created, enhanced or shared. Security concerns, privacy issues and concerns about equality argue that contributions in this area must be full-featured and robust.
9. Reduce the cost. Subsidized software stacks are another important aspect of providing tools for the other side of the divide. At Sun, for example, we've committed to providing free copies of all of our software to any student or educator anywhere in the world, and we're working with over 25 ministries of education across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Free software, plus free online training, means people have the opportunity to improve their abilities to participate in the global economy.
10. Provide access to services. Utilities and networked services are the final item in the toolbox. Services like Google and Yahoo are available for students on all sides of the divide, and new services are coming online all the time. If we can get people to these portals, they are open wide for everyone.
Pick one of these areas, start sharing, and let's see if we can get rid of the divide altogether.