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An evaluation of conventional wisdom of the factors underlying the digital divide: a case study of the Isle of Man
Author(s) -
Skok Walter,
Ryder George
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
strategic change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1099-1697
pISSN - 1086-1718
DOI - 10.1002/jsc.694
Subject(s) - digital divide , dilemma , the internet , government (linguistics) , premise , pessimism , internet access , position (finance) , test (biology) , public relations , economics , sociology , business , marketing , internet privacy , public economics , political science , computer science , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , finance , world wide web , biology
The digital divide is defined as the gap that exists between those with and those without access to the Internet. Conventional wisdom is represented by the technology optimists' view that the divide is caused by societal barriers to Internet connectivity such as low levels of education, income and proliferation of technology. The technology pessimists disagree that these barriers cause the divide or that they are important enough to justify significant expenditure by government. This paper reports on a study to evaluate the validity of the optimistic position. The Isle of Man (IOM) was selected for this evaluation because of its size, social stability, high levels of education and income and established e‐government programme. The premise of the research was that if the optimistic view is correct, lower or similar barriers to those found in the UK should result in higher or similar levels of Internet access in the IOM. Prime causal factors of the digital divide, as purported by the optimists, were found to marginally favour the IOM. However, the test of Internet access revealed that the IOM trailed the UK connectivity level by some 12% to 14%, which is not as expected from the optimistic viewpoint. This unexpected outcome could constitute a dilemma for the IOM government in adopting an appropriate strategy to e‐government implementation and narrowing the digital divide.Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.