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ICT and Pensioners in England

IT seems to have definatly changed this couples life. They can organise their meetings better, using officer applications. Also letters etc can be typed making them look more professional and easier to read for the club. IT isnt essential but it makes so much easier for anyone.

I don't think they'd be worse off if they didn't have IT at home but it definatly saves them time and effort which is great for an elderly couple. Instead of going to the shops they can order their weekly shopping online and wait at home for it.

Acessing a computer at the cimmunity centre wouldn't be as useful, first off they'd have to walk or drive there costing petrol money or taking about 20 minutes to walk. Then they probably wouldn't be allowed to do certain things on the public PC such as order shopping. Having IT at home is much better.

Who studies IT?

As a sterotype i'd say males study IT based subjects more than girls. In our class there are just 2 girls and around 15 boys. I'm not sure why as its not a 'macho' thing to do and girls are meant to be good at multi-tasking so they could probably get more work done quicker. I'd say on a whole that more males than females take IT / computing courses. This may change in the future but we never know.

Also women tend to do secutary work and PA work which uses IT a lot but still more males than females do IT in my opinion.

Impact of the internet for the homeless

Giving homeless people acess to theinternet could improve their lifestyle quite a bit. They may be able to find employment, schemes to get them off the streets and into work or housing or they could meet othe rpeople in the same situation and help eachother.

Internet cafés could have a day once a week were homeless people can look for jobs / help etc.

If this was turned into a government scheme it coul dhave quite big benefits.

World Summit

The main aim of the summit was to try and get around 90% of the worlds population started in the world of IT. this is quite a goal to achieve and will take a lot of work.

Bad points of this summit were only 40 heads of nations showed up for the summit. Also trying to get so many nations to agree on one thing is quite difficult.

Posative points are that the world is trying to agree on something and work together to connect the whole human race on the internet.

Personally, from the limited information i think that the summit could have gone better but its a start, we can't expec thuge thing slike this to be settled and action taken instantly.

E-mail in the Solomans

After reading the BBC report on the use of IT in the Soloman islands its obvious that there is a digital divide. Althought odds are against them, they people who live on them are starting to get more into IT. Havign community internet services is a strat, then soon once everyone has got used to using the IT they may be able to use it freely or get their own. Their divigtal divide problem might have started because of the isolation of their islands. Wireless internet can start to solve these problems as its only been around for a few years and can be expensive, espacially for a country that is still developing.

Laos

Laos has quite a big digital divide but also has a few bizzare cases of secluded places with no proper electricity having IT and internet access. Problems that have caused the divide are that the terrain is hilly / mountinous and it is hard to get signals into some of the country. Also there is a lot of rainfall and monsoon weather which can break equipment like ariels. A lot of people are willing to get into IT but some cant. At the moment most people are using text messaging to communicate.
A 'Peadal Powered' generator has been instlled in a village so they can run computers, it is water proof and sturdy so its safe from the weather. Also a charaity has set up in schools to help people learn about IT and its uses. I beleive that once more people in Laos learn how to use IT then the digital divide it has now will decrease, and soon be gone.