Review

Servon, Chapter 9. Toward a New Agenda.
Servon (2002) suggested several solutions for closing the digital divide (ex. policy makers, libraries, community-building organizations, among other solutions). Be familiar with each of them and think about which solutions would be helpful to various members of the Collins family.

There were many solutions suggested for closing the digitial divide. For one, the author suggested that government bodies help to close the digital divide by institutionalizing the problem, and working with other grassroot organizations to help them with the efforts and increase efforts to network between the groups. The government also needs to make better use of federal funds, grants, etc.


Policy makers need to recognize how large of a problem the digital divide is and offer suggestions to help solve it that don't just include access... but also things like training and education classes. They need to realize the potential technology has to help solve other, longer lasting inequality issues and be supportive of governments that want to help institutionalize the problem.

The authors suggested community building organizations work together to make sure their efforts aren't duplicated and work with policy makers to tell them what has worked and what hasn't.

Nearly all of these suggestions could have helped the Collins family. Since the family had a lot of interaction with the government, even just through meetings with case workers, had they known about education classes, perhaps they would have taken them. This would likely increase if the government help increase the number of classes throughout their area. The Collins also had interactions with community groups that could have helped them as well.