Libraries and the digital divide

A JSTOR search for ‘Digital Divide’  retrieves Chun-Yao Huang in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing stating the term “generally refers to the gap between the more privileged who have access and the less privileged who do not have access to information and communication technology (ICT)” Huang also stated that much attention has been put on the concept due to “the importance of ICT for productivity gains in the fiercely competitive new economy”. When I think of the digital divide however, I cannot help thinking about Aaron Swartz. Aaron Swartz envisioned a world where everyone would have access to the above article and all others like it, not just privileged students in a Western school like myself. Aaron was a young titan in the internet industry who was already a partner of Reddit.com by age eighteen. No one could epitomize potential for changing the world like Swartz in 2011 but unfortunately that was the year the federal government charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He was caught downloading a large portion of JSTOR’s archive with the intent to disseminate it on file sharing websites. Swartz, who was a fellow at Harvard University's Safra Center for Ethics, would not accept a plea bargain implying he was a felon. Shortly after the prosecution denied his counter offer Swartz committed suicide. One can see the prosecution’s case because JSTOR has an established and reputable database going that was being exposed to non authorized eyes. It is still nonetheless hard to accept the loss of Aaron Swartz. The economic, copyright and licensing issues which stifle a free flowing information world like the one Aaron Swartz envisioned are outside the scope of a blog post. The open source movement however is a great hope for those who want to see ICT available for everyone at little to no cost. If we look at the open source movement with respect to libraries with tight budgets or in poor or developing countries there is thankfully open source Integrated Library Systems (ILS) such as Koha as an option. It could be argued that the digital divide is contracting as last year saw 64% of Americans owning smartphones and Ericsson’s worldwide mobility report says there will be 6.1 billion smartphone users which works out to some 70 percent of the world’s population using smartphones in five years’ time. Should we be content with the whole world being able to access the internet or strive towards the world Aaron Swartz envisioned?