Public Voice Releases Report on Digital Divide - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 26, 2001

WASHINGTON

The Public Voice, a project of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington that facilitates public participation in the development of international Internet policy, has submitted a report to the Digital Opportunities Task Force, a G-8 digital divide initiative. The report, known as The Public Voice and the Digital Divide: A Report to the DOT Force assembles comments and proposals from the public and urges the G8 to incorporate more public participation in future consultations.

The Public Voice seeks to promote the participation of nongovernmental organizations in international decision-making bodies that address Internet policy. The report is submitted as a consultation to the Digital Opportunities Task Force. The Group of Eight (G-8) is composed of developed countries, including Japan, the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Russia.

Internationally, the digital divide refers to the dramatic worldwide variation in access to information technologies available to individuals and communities. While there are several ways to measure the digital divide, these statistics rarely understate the dimensions of the problem. For example, according to the G-8 Digital Opportunities Task Force (DOT Force) draft report, two billion people still have never made a telephone call.

For a copy of the report, please access <www.epic.org/>.