Taran Rampersad has just authored an insightful essay on what it means to be a technology activist. (Yours truly gets a mention in the article, which was mighty nice of him.) I'm going to snip heavily from his essay, since he sums up his train of thought better than I can.

Really - what is a technology activist? This has been something I've been trying to figure out, as it is presently a primary description of me... I joked about it, saying that the 'pay sucks' (and it does), and that there's little room for advancement.

Andy Carvin is someone I would use the label on. So is Bonnie Bracey. In fact, when I think about it, the entire DigitalDivide.net is really about technology activism, and it's certainly not limited to that one group. There are technology activists everywhere.

And I still can't quite put a finger on what a technology activist is. At the end of the day, it's a very broad and ill defined area which is a bit scarey, because perception might lead people to believe that technology activism is limited to a select group, when in fact I believe it isn't. I believe that it's a part of the natural course of technology.

For my part, I see it as an issue related to quality of life. I know that a lot of other people feel the same, though most I do know of would be categorized as Digital Divide Activists. Which, of course, gets us to what a Digital Divide Activist is and may help define Technology Activism.

The Digital Divide is pretty hard to divide, by itself, but generally speaking I think we could say it has to do with Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), globalization, and a divide in technology usage which affects areas of development. Just like development itself, the definition of the Digital Divide changes every day.

I suppose that means that Digital Divide Activists are doing something. And in the broader context, technology activism isn't limited to Digital Divide Activism.

Taran goes on to say that technology activism in itself is "a pretty poorly defined area." Generally speaking, he concludes, it means "trying to bring about change with technology."

I think that hits the nail on the head. Being a technology activist and working to bridge the digital divide isn't about putting an Internet PC so we can grow the market for e-commerce, online gaming or entertainment. If that's all we're doing, I might as well start looking for another job. (Wait a sec - I'm doing that already. Scratch that.)

Instead, being a technology activist is something more basic: fostering equitable access to tools that will improve people's quality of life - quality as they define it, on their own terms. For some people, that means gaining access to education for the first time. For others, it's plugging them into the democratic process so they can become a voice for change. Still others, it's making sure that their children have more and better opportunities to prosper than they ever did.

At its root, it's not about the technology. Being a technology activist is being a community activist, a social justice activist, a political activist, an education activist, a development activist. We've got these amazing tools that are revolutionizing the way we all live, learn, earn and interact. Shouldn't everyone have the same opportunity to benefit from these tools, so they too can make a better life for themselves?

That's what it's all about. -andy

The European Commission has published a new report urging the equitable deployment of broadband Internet services across Europe. The report, available as a PDF document in English, French and German, examines the current state of broadband in Europe and offers policy recommendations for expanding access.

“Broadband internet connections are a prerequisite for e-business, growth and jobs throughout the economy. Competition and open markets are certainly the best drivers of broadband in the EU,” said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, in a statement released by the commission. “However, broadband connections must not be limited to the big cities. If the EU and its 25 Member States make a clever use of all policy instruments, broadband for all Europeans is certainly not out of reach by 2010. But the time to act is now.”

According to the report, broadband has almost doubled in the past two years. "In October 2005 there were about 53 million connections in the EU25, corresponding to a penetration rate of 11.5% in terms of population and to roughly 20% of households," the report reads. "These developments have been mainly market driven and enhanced by increases in competition." Rural access continues to lag, with only eight percent of households subscribing to broadband.

Exploring the deployment of wireless access, the report states

The emergence of new wireless platforms particularly suited for rural areas is an interesting development. However, it requires that sufficient spectrum is made available, which in turn reinforces the importance of moving to more efficient and flexible forms of management of this scarce resource. The optimal mix of technologies depends on the characteristics of each particular location. The cost of technologies varies according to the number of potential users, the distance of the dwellings from the point of presence, and the presence of the backhaul. A scarcely-populated isolated area may be better off with a wireless solution and a small town with a wireline solution. Some radio solutions require a line-of-sight path which may not always be available in hilly regions.

No specific technology option will offer the best connectivity in all situations. The optimum is often achieved by a combination of technologies and solutions. In conclusion, best solutions can only be identified at the local level. Investment and choice should be made on the basis of current availability and effective demand.

Regarding the role of government in bridging the digital divide, the report continues:

Action at all government levels can help to increase coverage in under-served areas. Nevertheless, the assessment of market failures is a difficult task, particularly when there is uncertainty over the pace of broadband deployment. The benefits from government intervention must therefore be clear and substantial, compensating for the risks of undesirable consequences. One risk is that, by picking particular technologies or defining particular services, some government programmes may inhibit technological development. Another risk is that government intervention may distort competition and affect commercial incentives to invest. Finally, given the current gap between coverage and take-up, people may simply not be willing to use the technology.

All these risks should be assessed when designing broadband initiatives involving demand stimulation and aggregation, grant and loan programmes, municipal initiatives and competition, etc. The analysis requires policy makers to review reliable broadband data on an ongoing and timely basis. Availability of mapping of infrastructure is particularly relevant.

Local governments are well placed to collect local information and aggregate local demand for broadband services. They know the local topography and may determine the optimal technology mix. They may facilitate the development of local services or launch pilot projects to explore new technologies. They may support the rollout of future-proof high-capacity infrastructure that is open to competitive service providers on non-discriminatory basis.

In conclusion, local/regional authorities are best placed to plan a broadband project that takes into account local needs and technological requirements. National broadband strategies need to be strengthened to involve and reflect local needs. As projects are scattered, local and regional authorities will also largely benefit from an increased exchange of best practices.

Though the report focuses on infrastructure improvement, it does at least touch on broader aspects on the digital divide, including literacy, content and accessibility. "The geographical broadband digital divide is only one aspect of a wider social and economic development issue," they write. "It requires demand-side actions that support skills, accessibility, use of online services, etc."

For more info about the report, visit the Europa website. -andy

I've created a news digest that collects the latest news and blog entries regarding the detainment of Chinese blogger Hao Wu. The digest includes all blog references to Hao Wu, indexed by Technorati, as well as news stories displayed on Google News. The page is automatically updated several times an hour, so check back to this page regularly for the latest updates. You can also receive this news as an RSS feed. The feed was created using the tool FeedDigest, which also powers my sites Tsunami-Info.org and WSISBlogs.org.

For more information on Hao Wu, please visit FreeHaoWu.org. -andy

There's been so much talk among educators on whether Wikipedia should be banned from school, that it may come as a surprise to some that a school has actually been banned from Wikipedia.

I discovered the situation this morning, when I was conducting my daily review of my Wikipedia watchlist. For those of you who aren't Wikipedians, a watchlist is a personalized collection of Wikipedia entries that you've selected for monitoring future edits, often because you're one of the editors of those pages. For example, my watchlist includes entries I've created, like Ksar Ouled Soltane and Hao Wu, as well as entries relevant to me personally, like Andy Carvin and Digital Divide Network.

As I perused my watch list, I saw there had been a change to the entry for the video blog Rocketboom. On a previous occasion I'd caught someone vandalizing that entry, so I added it to my watchlist. So it came as no huge surprise when I discovered that the entry had been vandalized again, using a word that I won't mention so this story won't get blocked arbitrarily by school district Web filters. Fixing it was easy - I simply reverted the entry to its pre-vandalized state. But the vandalism annoyed me enough that I felt it was important to post a warning on the vandal's user talk page, which is sort of a notice board that each Wikipedian has to dialogue with other Wikipedians.

Reviewing the page, it became clear that they had a long history of vandalism complaints - so much so that their IP address had been banned on several occasions, preventing users of that computer from making further edits. Throughout the talk page there are warnings from other Wikipedians saying they must cease vandalizing the website immediately. Most interestingly, though, there's a note at the bottom of the page from one of the people behind the IP address in question:

Hi, this IP adress is that of my schools. Please dont block us from wikipedia complety, but do go ahead to block us from editing.

As it turns out, the IP address is owned by a school in Canada, with many students and teachers sharing the same Internet access point. If you review the list of all edits made from the address, you'll find dozens of instances of vandalism going back to November 2002. They've managed to vandalize pages ranging from Gaia Theory to the 1995 Quebec Referendum to even the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake.

It's quite understandable for Wikipedians to want to block this IP address to prevent any more vandalism on the site. But it makes me wonder just what, if anything, about Wikipedia was being taught in the school where all of this took place. Since I didn't find any constructive edits made by the IP address in question, my guess is that there was no curricular activity in which students were encouraged to examine Wikipedia critically. In many ways, this incident should serve as a teachable moment for this school and others. Wikipedia is far from perfect, but that's what makes it such an interesting tool when it comes to teaching media literacy. By democratizing the role of editor, Wikipedia raises important questions regarding credibility, the wisdom of crowds vs the sovereignty of experts, trust and anonymity, among other topics.

Students and teachers should debate Wikipedia and even contribute to it; remember, it's a work-in-progress, not a finished body of work. But all too often, the debate over Wikipedia's merits is left among the educators only, with students left out of the conversation and operating on a simple directive: don't use it. By ignoring Wikipedia rather than teaching critical, responsible uses of it, schools are practically inviting students to edit Wikipedia at their own peril. We should be preparing students for constructive participation in the Read/Write Web; otherwise it might as well be the Read/Vandalize Web. -andy

Taran Rampersad recently posted a message to his blog about the fact that he's recently been added to Wikipedia.

While reading the discussion on his Wikipedia entry's talk page, it occurred to me that there wasn't a category on Wikipedia for listing entries about digital divide activists. There are probably more digital divide activists in Wikipedia than I realize; just searching for a few Digital Divide Network members and other colleagues I found several including Bonnie Bracey, John "maddog" Hall, MS Swaminathan and Randal Pinkett. (I'm in Wikipedia as well.)

So, I went ahead and created a new Wikipedia page for digital divide activists.

This page is automatically updated whenever a wikipedia entry has a tag added to the bottom of the page designating that entry as a digital divide activist. For example, I was able to add Bonnie's name to the list by editing her wikipedia entry and adding this code at the bottom:

[[Category:Digital Divide activists|Bracey, Bonnie]]

As you can see, the format is fairly simple; you just edit the last section of it to include a person's surname, followed by their first name. So if you know of anyone who's a digital divide activist and happens to be listed in Wikipedia, please feel free to add this category tag to their wikipedia entry so they will be added to the digital divide activists page. And if you know a well-known activist who should be added to wikipedia, please feel free to create a new entry from scratch - the more the merrier.... -andy