1. Cyberspace & The Digital
Divide
by Deniz Cengiz

2. Cyberspace
The term
“cyberspace” was
first used by the
cyberpunk science
fiction author
William Gibson.

3.  "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination
experienced daily by billions of operators, in
every nation, by children being taught
mathematical concepts... A graphical
representation of data abstracted from the
banks of every computer in the human system.
Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged
in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and
constellations of data. Like city
lights, receding..."
William Gibson, Neuromancer, 1984.

4. What is Cyberspace?
 Cyberspace represents the new medium
of communication.
 The experience of time, distance, people,
travel, shopping and information you
encounter while in the world of the
Internet. The only physical activity needed
in cyberspace is using a keyboard and
mouse.

5. Cyberculture
 ‘...the study of various social phenomena
associated with the Internet and other new
forms of network communication.
Examples of what falls under cyberculture
studies are online communities, online multi-
player gaming, the issue of online identity, the
sociology and the ethnography of email
usage, cell phone usage in various
communities; the issues of gender and
ethnicity in Internet usage; and so on.’
Lev Manovich (2002)

6. Cyberculture
Bell’s definition: “cyberculture is a way of
thinking about how people and digital
technologies interact, how we live together…
ways of life in cyberspace, or ways of life
shaped by cyberspace, where cyberspace is a
matrix of embedded practices and
representations”
Paul Taylor describes everyday interactions
with cyberculture as “living in the gap”.

7. Where do we find cyberculture?
 Online chat or messaging
 (SMS, e-mail, Msn, etc)
 Social networks
 (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
 Discussion forums
 Peer to peer networks
 (Limewire, torrent networks)
 Gaming networks
 (Xbox Live, etc)

8. What is cyberspace ?

9. Digital Divide
 The term digital divide refers to any inequalities between
people who have access to digital technology – such as
computers, Internet, mobile phones, etc. – and those who
have very limited access or no access at all or the divide
between those who use technology and those who do
not.

10. Old and New Digital Divide
 “Old” digital divide - divide between those who
have access to technology and those who do
not.
(circumstance)
 New digital divide – divide between those who
use technology and those who do not. (choice)

12. World Internet Usage and Population
Statistics
World region Internet Internet Penetration Growth
users (2000) users (2010) (% (2000–2010)
population) (%)
Africa 4,514,400 110,931, 700 10.9 2,357.3
Asia 114,304,000 825,094,396 21.5 621.8
Europe 105,096,093 475,069,448 58.4 352.0
Middle East 3,284,800 63,240,946 29.8 1,825.3
North 108,096,800 266,224,500 77.4 146.3
America
Latin 18,068,919 204,689,836 34.5 1,032.8
America/
Caribbean
Oceania/ 7,620,480 21,263,990 61.3 179.0
Australia

14. Key Factors
 Income: The average Bangladeshi would have to spend more than eight
years income to buy a computer, compared with just one month’s salary for
the average American.
 Cost of connection: Monthly Internet access charges are percent of the
average monthly income: the US 1,2 percent, Bhutan 80 percent and
Nepal 278 percent.
 Education: Globally, 30 percent of Internet users have a degree from an
institution of higher education.
 Gender: Women account for 25 percent of users in Brazil, and 4 percent in
Arab states.
 Age: Most users in China and the United Kingdom are under the age of 30.
 Language: English is used in almost 80 percent of websites, yet less than
one in ten people in the world speaks the language.”

16. Example:The Digital Divide

17. Internet Access as a Human
Right
 In several countries, including Estonia, France,
Spain, Finland, and Greece, Internet access is
already a human right.

18. The Leland Initiative
 The Leland Initiative is a program of USAID
(United States Agency for International
Development) to improve internet
connectivity in Africa.
 “ The information revolution offers Africa a
dramatic opportunity to leapfrog into the future,
breaking out of the decades of stagnation or
decline”. (World Bank,1995)

19. Africa (1995)
 Only1000 Internet users outside of South
Africa existed.
 Only 6 out of 53 African nations had access to
the Internet (including South
Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Uganda, and
Zambia).

20. The Leland Initiative
 The Leland Initiative achieved its greatest
success in Mali, and limited success in Benin,
Guinea, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique,
Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda.
 The Leland Initiative was not successful in
Gambia, Mauritania and Nigeria.

21. People to people power of net:
Kiva
 Kiva is a non-profit micro-finance
organization. Kiva was founded in October
2005 by Matthew and Jessica Flannery, a
husband and wife team.
 According to Walker “with a few clicks you can
help someone on the other side of the world
and play a part in solving the problems of
global inequality which so often seem
insurmountable.”

22. www.kiva.org

23. The question is…
Can the Internet help to create
a more equal world?

24. Digital Natives
 Digital Natives are people who
have grown up in the digital
world using technology as a
way to communicate, and
understand society.

26. Digital Immigrants
 People who “were not born into the
digital world but have, at some later
point in their lives, become fascinated
by and adopted many or most aspects
of the new technology.” (Prensky,
2001)

28. The question is…
Should these digital natives learn the
old ways or should their digital
immigtant educators learn the new?

29. Cyberspace & The Digital
Divide
by Deniz Cengiz

30. References:
 1.Does the Internet Empower? A look at the Internet and ınternational
Development by Deborah L. Wheeler
 2.The dimensions of the Digital Divide by Lisa Servon
 3.Cybercultures: Critical Concepts Media and Cultural Studies by
Daniel Bell
 4.What is Cyberspace? Submitted By Waseem Saeed
 5.The global digital divide as impeded access to content by Mira Burri
 6.Digital Divide Article by Göknur Ege
 7.The New Digital Divide by by Toni Gzehoviak, Kasia Grabowska,
Dan, McPhillips, Sheila Cody
 8.Economy, Politics & Culture in Cyberspace by Özgür Uçkan
 9.Trapped in the Digital Divide: The Distributive Paradigm in
Community Informatics By Virginia E. Eubanks (DIGITAL DIVIDE
DRAWS)State University of New York at Albany (SUNY), USA