A couple of things

So, in regards to Legacy, I thought the movie was one of, if not the best, part of the class thus far this semester. Unlike articles, which, no offense, for me at least, seem to only really strike a "I need to remember this for class" cord, the movie struck something much deeper. It really made me think about the struggles sectors of the society face each and everyday and how important is is the government, civic organizations, etc., work to help fix the problems. I think, like everyone else, the film really related best to Bishop since they were both stories that really, as cliche as it sounds, came from the heart and made you remember them because you were a human and they were "real life" stories, rather than the articles we've had to remember because we're students and are going to get tested on them.

That being said, I think that this also puts a very human face on the digital divide problem & points out just how important is it that we solve them as soon as possible: http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/448709

See you all tomorrow.

Legacy and Bishop

For some reason my legacy post did not show up on the blog so I am trying to remember what I said and post it again.

First of all I really enjoyed watching Legacy. I thought it was a touching movie that gave me a deeper understanding about how some people are actually living in the U.S today. I also thought the movie did a great job of vividly bringing the information we are learning in this class to a actual example family. It was nice to see a real life example of some of the struggles and hardships that we were learning about in class. At least for me, it made the material seem more important and made it tangible.

It was also very easy to see many examples from the Bishop article come to life in Legacy. First of all, Bishop was talking about lower income African American families who were deprived of access and technology because of their financial status. This is exactly what we see with the collin's family (with and exception of Nicole). They had many other things to worry about in their life than getting the Internet. Keeping the children safe, trying to get off welfare, and looking for employment were issues that was keeping the Collins family on the bottom side of the digital divide. Many other concepts from class were brought up in this movie and I really believe that this movie did a great job of connecting the class to a real life example.

Here is a link to the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3XQXYR0sDA

Week 13 Readings

I thought it might helpful to blog about last week's reading because we didn't have a discussion session. Here is a summary of what I took away from the articles.

Reading Race Online-Byron Burkhalter

The article states that being a member of a racial class is now fundamentally determined by physical features. Although physical cues are lacking online, racial identification is not. It is a feature of many online interactions, relying on the person's perspective. This can produce consequences such as assumptions or stereotypes made based on the author's identity. There can be a discrepancy between their identity and perspective. The recognition of the interactional character can offer some insight into the reason that racial identity comes up in particular situations and not others. Situational ethnicity refers to the author's subjective perception of the situation and to the salience they attribute to ethnicity as a relevant factor in the situation. In general,iu racial self-identification is used by authors to establish a social position. They talked about various ways in which people's interactional organization responds to and uses the Usenet environment. In conclusion, modifying the author's identity allows readers to maintain the connection between racial identities and perspectives. Race is no less relevant in online interaction than it is in face-to-face interaction. Racial stereotypes may be more influential and resilient on the Usenet.


Understanding Digital Inequality-Hsieh

In this article, the study used income and education to differentiate between the socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged in order to focus on their behavioral differences using ICT. Many authors believe in the idea that the digital divide can be solved with access to technology. This study uses user acceptance to represent individual's continuance usage intention of the sponsored technology to supplement access. The purpose of the study was to better understand the user acceptance of ICT provided to the citizens through a governmental digital inequality initiative. They hypothesize that the socio-economic status can moderate the relationship between behavioral control and its consequences in 9 different ways. The control variable was the ownership of an Internet PC. The results supported 6 of the 9 hypotheses. It was found that factors that influenced the individuals intention to continue using the technology were different for the two groups. Attitude was more influential for disadvantaged users. While subjective norms were not influential, social network still affects post implementation ICT acceptance through personal network exposure and the effect is stronger for the advantaged. Behavioral control, self-efficacy, and availability were more critical in determining continuance intention for disadvanted. On average, the advantaged had a higher level of ownership, but this had little effect on the disadvantaged continuance. The article also suggests that further research is needed especially for physical conditions, emotional variables, employment status, and family structure.

Hope this helps everyone and feel free to add anything that you thought was important.

Video Project-- Becca, Axel, Kaitlin, Katie, Jenna, and Mason

Legacy

I don't mean to repeat everyone, but I think there was a real connection with Legacy and Bishop's article, and not really the others. Legacy put Bishop's findings regarding low-income black women into real life perspective with the story about the Collins family. Internet access was much less important to Wanda and Elisa because they were struggling to keep their children safe, fed, and educated while trying to find jobs and kick drug addictions for themselves. The women got the necessary information that they needed like information on jobs, education, and health care via means other than the computer. The only people who would really have a need for computer access were Wanda and Elisa's children that were in school and Nicole being in college. The other articles from last week really didn't relate like Bishop's article did

Legacy and Bishop

I really enjoyed watching the Legacy filmed and i think it really opens your eyes to people who aren't as privelaged as we are. I did disagree a little with what the woman TA said yesterday in lecture about the girl not having access to AP credits and that putting her at a disadvantage. I am from a really small school and we also didn't have the options of taking AP courses at school and I don't feel behind or disadvantaged at all. Yea maybe I would have tested out of a few classes, but I can still get out in 4 years, etc.
For last week I read the bishop article and in some ways I think it relates to Legacy. In the article it talked about African Americans that were struggling financially, which in turn led to a shortage in access to technology. In Legacy, the Collins family also struggled financially and with access. The girl that went to the private high school was able to access the technology she needed, but the older generations greatly struggled. While they didn't go into great detail about the access issues the Collins family had, I think some were obvious and related quite well to the article. This was an interesting movie to show and actually showed real life examples. I think we all know they exist, but if the access issues aren't affecting us directly we tend to forget.

Legacy and Bishop Article

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Legacy film in lecture over the past couple weeks. I felt like viewing an actual family struggling with equality issues helped me understand the material much better. The video was also directed and produced very well, which caused the audience to feel a part of the Collins family experience. 

I felt like the Collins' story related very well to the Bishop article we were supposed to read for last week. Bishop talked about low income African Americans who were struggling to provide for their families, which was very similar to the Collins and their situation. Bishop also found a lot of his information through simple word of mouth. This was similar to Legacy because the Collins' story was told strictly through word of mouth. The women of the family expressed their desires and needs through interviews and other conversations. I didn't feel like Legacy touched much on the actual digital divide though. The Collins were going through a divide, no doubt, but the idea of a technological divide was only touched on once that I recall. However, the digital divide did not prevent Nickole from prospering as a student and as a young person. Overall, a great movie and great idea to show this movie as a real life example of the lecture material. 

Legacy in the Making

I found Legacy to be a really interesting movie, but I felt like there wasn't too much to talk about when it came to actual digital technology.  It concentrated more on people who live on the "other side" of the divide, but didn't directly address the problem of not having technology.  

I would have to say that Legacy has a lot to do with Bishop's article about how low-income communities use information services.  Legacy didn't really talk about libraries or computers, but it did address the ideas of education programs and health care information that most of the community is concerned about.  We saw that with Wanda going to rehab and Nicole trying to get scholarships and the principle giving her family a discount on tuition for her grandmother and mother working there.  Also, a lot of the information was passed on by word of mouth, which Bishop talks about.  Bishop also states that you don't need to use new services, but the services such as the Boys and Girls Club that Nicole worked at, the church they went to, the rehab and welfare services to help with that divide.

Jager and Legacy

The connection that I found between the readings and Legacy related to the idea of social inclusion. Jager states that the government has developed a "mission accomplished" view of the digital divide meaning that we as a country have overcome the lack of internet and computer access that was in issue in the past. In reality, as Jager points out, this is not the correct view to take. Though it is true that we have made great strides as a country in connecting more people to the internet, through libraries and other means, we have by no means accomplished the mission. We do not have a country of internet connected individuals, which is clear in the movie. At no point in the movie do we see anyone searching the internet, or using technology in a way that would make anyone believe that the mission combating the digital divide has been accomplished. This is especially an issue because of the advantages that having access to the internet would have brought to the family in Legacy. In addition to advantages in school work, and the potential for scholarship that the internet could provide for the daughter, access for the family would also have helped the mother in her job hunt, in communication with employers, and in access to government information that could help the family. The Jager article describes how the government should not claim the the mission of closing the digital divide is accomplished, and evidence for this shortcoming is visible in Legacy.

Legacy Comparison

For last week's discussion I read the article by Sandvig: Public Internet Access for Young Children in the Inner City. The article described three different initatives trying to improve access, privacy, and prevent indecency specifically among children. A library in the inner city of San Francisco was researched to measure the use of the internet by the kids. It was found that most kids use computers for gaming and communication. A huge difference between this article and the movie Legacy is that the kids in the movie don't seem to have access to the internet or a computer in general. They live in a bad part of Chicago, but in the article the kids were also not from the best area of San Francisco. Another observation I had was that Nicole's mom tried to take a program for computers, but was unfortunately let go. She knew how vital technology is becoming in terms of careers. Training was hard to come by in their area. It wasn't until Nicole went on to college that I noticed her use of computers. I wonder what resources she used throughout high school. It seems to me that the kids researched in the article had much more access to computers than the kids in Legacy.

"Legacy" comparison

The article by Bishop parallels the living situation of the family in legacy, though computers cease to influence the daily living of the family.  First, indicated by the results of a study, low-income residents were most interested in information concerning the necessities of getting along in life, including: community services and activities, child resources, healthcare, education, employment, safety and reference tools.  Much as these residents who desired to use a computer for quick reference, recommendations and advice, the family in "Legacy" desired access to information to get along in life; job information, welfare information, etc. The mother was, in a sense, illiterate in the basic aspects of life due to not receiving an education, obtaining a well-paying job, and supporting her family. Therefore, she had to search and talk to countless people about obtaining a job, while still trying to support her family.  A statement in Bishop suggests, "Computer use will not really take hold among low-income community residents until they are able to find a way around a splintered ecology of access within which they currently live. " In relation to the family in "Legacy," without basics, a job to support her family, and education, etc., the mother would not be able to "move up in society."  At the point in the video we ended up in at lecture, we saw that the mother finally landed a secure job with the promise of receiving a GED and teacher certification, Wanda successfully graduated from a drug addiction class and is caring for her own children, and the grandmother was able to move into her own home. It seems the family has overcome some of life's basic hurdles to finally have a place, ever evolving, in society, much like the Article by Bishop emphasizes in information access for the low-income.  

"Legacy" and government policies

One of the articles from last week that did relate to "Legacy" was the article written by Jaeger. The article is about technology access policies state and local governments implement. This article highlights the standards governments set for bandwidths and connection speeds, which are not high enough to keep up with technology. The technology increasingly requires higher speeds which public libraries cannot afford for their low income patrons. The people who need technology the most are the ones left behind. This reminded me of a particular situation in "Legacy." When Nicole's mother, Lisa, tries to work with the welfare system, she always gets stuck. New rules are implemented, which leads to confusion of who to contact for information. Lisa loses a job because she doesn't talk to the right person about childcare. Both the article and the movie reveal that it is difficult for governments to keep up to date with vital information, and to give that information to the people. In both cases, those who lose are the people who need help the most.

Hey Guys,
I already talked to Nate about this, but if this doesn't relate to our class, than nothing does! I also plan on having one of my reporters write a similar story for the Badger Herald tomorrow (Thursday).. so be sure to check it out there. (and yes, I just did a "sales pitch" for my paper.)

http://www.jsonline.com/business/42642612.html

See you next Wednesday!
Rachel

Exam Review: Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road - Online Lecture

http://www.internetforeveryone.org/americaoffline/nc

This assignment was a Thursday online lecture done in 2007 about five different people living in North Carolina experiencing a lack of Internet connectivity. Here is a summary of each person's story:

Day One - Rhonda from Pemboke
Rhonda currently lives with dial-up because high-speed internet is too expensive to afford right now. The economy is bad everywhere, and this area of North Carolina is really getting hit hard because they're primarily a textile industry. Rhonda explains paying for groceries is more important than paying for faster internet.

Day Two - Jay from Person County
Jay is a farmer living in rural North Carolina on a 1,000 acre farm. He had dial-up right now but needs high-speed for the farm needs and his daughter in junior high school. The phone companies have said they would be out to install high-speed in the area but haven't followed through.

Day Three - Brooks from the Smoky Mountains
Brooks used to be a freelance writer before moving to a rural area in the mountains. He had to give up his writing career because the fastest internet connection he could get in the area was dial-up and it wasn't meeting the demands of his career.

Day Four - Layten from Spring Creek
Layten lives in a very rural area that only has dial-up internet access. Layten is also facing hardships brought on by the poor economy and may not be able to afford high-speed even if it was accessible.

Day Five - Sam from Rutherford County
Sam has a high-up position working for IBM. He lives in a rural area but absolutely needs a fast internet connection for his career. He has spent a lot of money and time building different infrastructures to get the fast connection that he needs. He went from a satellite on his roof much like a dish for satellite TV, to constructing a tall tower to get the fast connection.

Good luck studying everyone!

Exam Review

I am going to try and summarize the video: Bridging the digital divide, focusing on spanish communities. This video attempted to inform librarians and community members about a way to try and close the digital divide between spanish speaking communities. Many great points were brought up in this video about how we can incorporate certain things in our libraries that will make the spanish speaking community feel more comfortable in the libraries.

1) You need to find out where the spanish speakers are comfortable, REACH OUT!- worship groups, houses, schools, book stores, advocacy groups...etc.
2)Make personal contact with them
3)Build trust and personal relationships with customers- spanish signs and language sections
4)Be flexible issuing library cards
5)Location of spanish materials- front and center of back in the corner? Which one?
6)Take your time with them
7)Brush up on your spanish and have bilingual employees
8)Hire spanish speakers to work in classrooms and computer labs
9)Recruit spanish speaking volunteers to help out
10)Schedule classes around work schedules
11)Consider Childcare issues
12)Set up carpools

These were the main points that I got from the video. If anyone got any others they would like to add please do so. Hopefully these will refresh your memory of what the video was about.

Exam 2 Review

The main point of the film Afro@ Digital shown in lecture was to show the different emerging types of technology being used by Africans, and how this is a part of the Digital Divide. First, the video discussed cell phones. Many people interviewed said they were helpful in jobs- that old methods of communication were too slow, and this way they could reach someone much quicker. They talked about African cybercenters opening so that students could have access to computers for school and research. Also, if they gained enough computer skills, they could eventually go on and make that into a career. Computers were also used for business transactions- though many people were limited by the fact that they didn't have a credit card. They also discussed how computers were important for documenting memories. The other types of technology briefly mentioned in the film were recording studios and filmmaking technology.

The Digitl Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon

Van Dijk defines access in four different ways mental access, material access, skills, access and usage access. Mental access is your personal interest in using computers, material access is possession of a personal computer or network connection, skills access is the skills needed to use the Internet efficiently and usage access is having a reason to the Internet.

Van Dijk defines digital skills more closely and breaks them down into three groups instrumental, informational, and strategic. Instrumental skills is the ability to operate software and hardware. Informational skills are the skills used for finding information using software and strategic skills are skills to use information for own purpose.

"Crossing the Divide"

The movie watched during discussion called " Crossing the Divide" can easily be compared to some of the terms and topics of discussion from week 7.

First of all, the term access can easily be related to some of the students and their families from the movie. Kep's parents specifically did not have access at home. They did not have a computer at home(device), there was a language barrier between them and their community which prevented their learning how to use a computer and the internet. (literacy) Lastly, Kep's family owned a private business and they had a large family so the cost of a computer and an internet connection may have prevented their access (conduit).

However, in comparison Sedra had more access based on her family's economic standing, her father's ocupation, and living in Silicon Valley. Her father worked for an important tech. company which increased the literacy of their whole family. They could also afford to buy computers for their home and pay for an internet connections.(device and conduit)

Lastly Travis was a good example of literacy practice, the capability to understand and communitcate that knowledge. Travis needed to design a peice of software, showing that he understood how the software worked, and he also had to explain how the software worked and what he was doing to his teachers and people on the school board. If he was unable to do this he would not graduate. So therefore he needed to demonstrate that he was literate and could practice that literacy.

Bridging the Digital Divide in Spanish Speaking Community

• nowhere is the digital divide more evident than in the Spanish speaking community
• 32% home internet access for Spanish speakers
• Methods to reach out in order to bridge gap

1. Teaming schools with libraries
2. Spanish materials in own section
3. Less strict library card rules (example: no photo id required)
4. Computer/technology training for Spanish speakers

Louise Robbins’ A Question of Access

Although this lecture was a long time ago, I am going to try my best to sum up the main themes of it. There are three requirements for being able to participate in the global knowledge society. They are literacy, or the ability to read and write, content, which refers to the information being in one's language and being suitable to one's needs, and access to that content, which means having an internet connection, having transportation to libraries, etc.

The main theme of this presentation was that racism was very alive in libraries before the 1960s. In the early 1903s, there were very few libraries in the South. Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the Works Progress Administration, which developed suitable libraries. This helped to put a lot of libraries in the South. For example, Ruth W. Brown was fired for circulating Nazi propaganda, when she was truly fired for being an early integrator. Emily Reed was almost even fired in 1959 for circulating a book called "The Rabbits Wedding" because there was a picture of a white rabbit and a black rabbit on the cover. Finally, the ALA banned all segregated libraries in 1962.

The thing to take away from this lecture is that many racist acts were taking place related to libraries, but the wrong-doers would try to cover it up by rationalizing them in some way. World War 2 and accusations of communism were a few of the more popular excuses.

Week 8

Van Dijk defines access as four components:
Mental Access: interest in learning about digital technologies and experience with such devices
Material Access: possession of a computer and internet that will allow you access
Skills Access: Digital skills (refer to skills definition below)
Usage Access: reasons and opportunities to use

Different Types of Digital Skills
Instrumental Skills: ability to operate hardware and software
Informational Skills: operating digital equipment and sorting information
Strategic Skills: using information for one's own purpose

Week 7

Informationalism represents the 3rd industrial revolution where the computer and the internet play vital roles. Informationalism is characterized by advances in Science and Technology, a shift from material processing to information processing, the emergence and expansion of new forms of networked industrial organization and the rise of socioeconomic globalization. Basically, where the previous two revolutions made economies grow by the introductions of machinery (1st revolution) and electricity (2nd revolution), the current revolution is bringing the world together with rapid advances in science and technology that allow industries to grow multinationally without much trouble and where the computer and internet are key to success.

The new categories of workers are routine production workers, who are similar to blue collar workers of today, these are the factory workers, data processers, etc.
in-person service workers who still have relatively low skill or extra schooling, and are in the service sector (jobs like janitors, hospital attendants, taxi drivers)
symbolic analysts who make use of ICT for analysis and interpretation of data

Hey,
Does anyone have a good definition of informationalism?
Thanks!

what is trend amplifiers?

Week Eight: March 10 & 12 - Defining the digital divide
Norris, P. (2001). “Understanding the digital divide” and “Social inequalities” in Pippa Norris, Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (26-38), (68-92).

• Understand the difference between stratification and normalization as it relates to technological diffusion.
• What are the characteristics of people who are more likely to be online?

Normalization is the path taken by previous technologies that were introduced.. such as television, radio, etc. In this graph, the lines make an S curve, representing the more elite groups that get the technology first, giving them an edge, with the middle class and lower classes eventually catching up as prices go down and the technology becomes cheaper. Eventually, prices become so low, the technology becomes saturated into the society, giving almost everyone access. Stratification is the opposite of this, and arguing that those who are given the initial advantage are likely to keep it because there will always be new technology and improvements to other technologies leaving the lower classes playing catch-up. As a result, the digital divide will always exist.

College graduates who are younger and white are the groups most likely to be online, as well as those who work in more professional and management positions.

REVIEW: Week Ten

Albert Hirschman's Theory of exit, voice, and loyalty

Members of a society have two possible choices when the neighborhood changes (race, income, crime): they can exit(meaning move out) or they can voice(meaning express their views through complaints or ideas to stop the negative change). When the citizens have strong loyalty, exit is minimal and voice is predominately used. Factors that contribute to loyalty are community organizations, stable jobs, and generational inertia.

Tipping Point

When something transitions from unique to common. In the book, this happens when the residents of the neighborhoods give up on their voice and loyalty and succumb to exiting the area. The rapid "invasion" of different ethnic backgrounds creates a sense of loss of control in the original community members.

Solutions suggested in Ch. 6

The authors suggest that these neighborhoods band together and set aside their cultural differences to build a better place to live. Essentially they say that these neighborhoods need to use bridging social capital.

Defining the Digital Divide--Norris

Understand the difference between stratification and normalizaiton as it relates to technological diffusion--
-Stratification is the pessimistic view of technology adoption that states that groups that are ahead in the digital world will always stay ahead of the curve and those behind the curve will never be able to catch up.
-Normalization is the optimistic view of technology adoption that claims that those who adopt technology as soon as it's introduced will be ahead of the curve until the price of that technology drops and the rest of the world is able to catch up.

Characteristics of people who are more likely to be online--
-Today, people who are more likely to be online live in post industrial societies. Not all of these people have college training. They are commonly people with modest incomes. While a gender gap in internet access in America is essentially nonexistent, in other countries, males are more likely to be online.


-Kayla

Access and Warschauer

Warschauer describes access in three parts:

1. Device (computer, one-time purchases)
   
2. Conduit (ongoing, monthly payments)
   
3. *Literacy (set of social practices and cognitive abilites)
   

There are four resources also necessary for connectivity and informationalism: physical resources (access to devices again), digital resources (online information), human resources (literacy practices and education), and social resources (community/institutional ICT supporters).

ICT=Information and Communication Technology

Using these modes of access, the workforce will become less of a hierarchy of power and more of a network of colleagues working together with a more developed set of skills (opposed to repetitive, narrow skill sets).

Exam Review

How does Van Dijk define access? 

   Van Dijk defines four "barriers to access:"

--Mental Access: "Lack of interest, computer anxiety, and unattractiveness of new technology."

--Material Access: Lack of "possession of computers and a connection."

--Skills Access: "Lack of digital skills due to insufficient user friendliness and inadequate education or social support."

--Usage Access: "Lack of usage opportunities."

What are the different types of digital skills?

   Van Dijk's definitions:

--Instrumental Skills: "The ability to operate hardware and software."

--Informational Skills: Ability to "operate digital equipment and searching for information using digital hardware and software."

--Strategic Skills: "Using information for one's own purpose and position." 

Exam 2 Review - Week 7 Questions

Here is a start to the first set of questions. Please feel free to add to or adjust my answers!

How does Warschauer define access?
Warschuer defines access by devices and conduits, meaning ownership and obtaining a connection. The author also uses literacy to define access, meaning more specifically literacy practice rather than literacy skills because the application of literacy in social context is what is important, not the decontexualized cognitive ability.
What set of features and technologies describe the various industrial revolutions? The First Industrial Revolution, in the late 18th century, was marked with the invention of the printing press, steam engine and machinery. Work was done in workshops and the hierarchy of the time was: master-apprentice-serf. The second, in the late 19th century, was marked with electricity, internal combustion, the telegraph, and the telephone. Work was done in factories and large vertical hierarchies existed. The third, in the mid to late 20th century, was marked with the transistor, personal computers, telecommunications, and the Internet. The work was done in offices, with horizontal networks (teams).
Define and understand the concept of informationalism.
Informationalism represents a third industrial revolution. It is an information economy in which computers and the Internet play a major role. Informationalism has a driving role of science and technology for economic growth, focuses on information processing rather than material production, new forms of networked industrial organization are emerging and expanding, and socioeconomic globalization is rising because of informationalism.
What are the new categories of workers (as opposed to the old categories of blue-collar and white-collar workers)? What do workers in the new categories do?
The new categories are: routine production workers (data processors, payroll clerks, factory workers), in-person service workers (janitors, hospital attendants, taxi drivers), and symbolic analysts (software engineers, management consultants, strategic planners). All use computers or the Internet in their jobs, the first two in routine ways and the last for analysis and interpretation.