Digital Nation: Toward an Inclusive Information Society
Anthony G. Wilhelm
As our social institutions migrate into cyberspace, the digitally disenfranchised face increasing hardships. What happens when - in search of quick and cheap fixes -
a government office shuts down and is replaced by a public Web site? What happens when a company accepts only online job applications? Inevitably, those most in need of the services and opportunities offered are further marginalized. In Digital Nation, Tony Wilhelm shows us how to build a more inclusive information society, offering a plan that reaps the benefits offered by the new technology while avoiding the pitfalls of social exclusion.
Technology, he tells us, isn't the problem: it's the use of technology that can empower or control, unite or divide; we need to recover the ideas of social justice and fairness that have been lost in the rush to make things faster and cheaper. In Wilhelm's vision of an inclusive digital nation, everyone can take advantage of the new technology. With everyone part of the information society, we can revolutionize the way we educate our citizens, deliver healthcare, and engage in productive work. We can begin to bring this about by expanding access to computers and making it easier to acquire digital literacy skills. To do nothing - to turn a blind eye to the promise of an inclusive technology - would cost us socially and economically. Digital Nation's call for action sets the terms for a new debate on bridging the digital divide.
Tony Wilhelm is an acclaimed author and expert, addressing equity issues in the emerging digital society.
cyberspace, digital society, knowledge society, technology
Title: Digital Nation: Toward an Inclusive Information Society
Author: Anthony G. Wilhelm
Publication: Cambridge: MIT Press, cop. 2004
ISBN: 0-262-23238-3
Preface
1 Digital Nation at a Crossroads
2 "Everybody Should Know the Basics, Like How to Use a Computer"
3 A Faustian Bargain for the Digital Age
4 The New Frontier of Civil Rights
5 A Digital Nation in Black and White
6 Flattening the Virtual Landscape in Education
7 Wire-less Youth: Rejuvenating the Net
Conclusion
Notes
in-deph
miscellany