4 Mar 2005
The meeting will focus on systematic and critical case studies of initiatives designed to narrow ‘digital divides’ – within developing countries and between developing and developed countries – relating to the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs). Contributions will offer individual or comparative case studies providing insight into the most significant divides and how they can be closed, or which question the significance of digital divides.
Accounts of these kinds of initiatives are not always closely scrutinised or challenged by hard questions concerning their scalability or transferability to other contexts. By informing discussion about competing approaches, the seminar aims to move debate away from overly simplified prescriptions on how divides can be bridged, as these typically lack clarity in how the aim of closing divides can be accomplished in practice. Relevant experiences relating to participation in WSIS processes are particularly welcomed.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:00 | Welcome and Introduction by Bill Dutton and Sonia Liff |
| 10:00 | Panel I: Digital Divide Initiatives
Michael Best: Kali, Creator and Destroyer: A Personal Recollection on Media Lab Asia Paul Foley: Social exclusion and the digital divide – A comparative international perspective Panayiota Tsatsou: Civil Society in Greece – Shaping new digital divides? |
| 11:30 | Lunch |
| 13:15 | Panel II: Comparative Perspectives on the Digital Divide
Barbara Crow and Leslie Regan Shade: Gender, Digital Divides and ICT Agenda in Canada Sharon Strover: Assessing Community Efforts to Reduce the Digital Divide Harsha Liyanage and Michael David: Second generation problems of bridging the digital divide in Sri Lanka |
| 15:15 | Discussion led by Sonia Liff, Stephen Coleman and Corinna di Gennaro |
| 15:45 | Break |
| 16:00 | Summary of Key Issues: A Webcast
Panel TBD: Participants will design and produce a 15-30 minute summary of the key issues in a webcast enabling wide participation in the proceedings of the seminar series. |
| 16:30 | Closing remarks |
We are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for their support of this seminar series.
Dr Michael Best
MIT
Dr Barbara Crow
University of York
Professor Paul Foley
DeMontfort University
Harsha Liyanage
Sarvodaya
Dr Leslie Regan Shade
Concordia
Dr Sharon Strover
University of Texas, Austin
Panayiota Tsatsou
London School of Economics