WCN blog

Another study on internet access and the Digital Divide.

by Jon Gordon, Minnesota Public Radio April 27, 2006

The Internet population is growing again after a period of stagnation, according to a new poll from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Nearly three out of four American adults now use the Internet regularly, according to Pew Internet researcher […]

Many studies have come out recently stating that the Digital Divide is growing smaller. A recent Pew survey found that 74% of Anglo-Americans, 61% of African-Americans and 80% of English speaking Hipanic-Americans have access to the internet. The study below looked at the Digital Divide through out the world.

World’s Digital Divide Narrowing

By Lucas van Grinsven, […]

By Leslie Walker Washington Post Staff Writer

While growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information.

The dramatic success of those Internet categories is apparent from a recent online-traffic analysis provided by market research firm ComScore Media Metrix, which examined visitor growth rates among the […]

Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:05am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of U.S. users of the Internet went online for help with major life decisions such as finding a college for their child or looking for a new place to live, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

The results show that the Internet is becoming increasingly […]

by Martin H. Bosworth, ConsumerAffairs.Com March 30th, 2006

A final draft of Congressional legislation designed to update the nation’s telecommunication laws is being called a “mixed bag,” as it addresses issues ranging from cities developing their own Wi-Fi networks to codifying the principles of “net neutrality” into law.

Like any mixed bag, some are happy with what they’re […]

By MICHEL MARRIOTT Published: March 31, 2006 New York Times

African-Americans are steadily gaining access to and ease with the Internet, signaling a remarkable closing of the “digital divide” that many experts had worried would be a crippling disadvantage in achieving success.

Civil rights leaders, educators and national policy makers warned for years that the Internet was bypassing blacks […]

Net neutrality in broadband networks has become a major public-policy debate. Every industry whose products or services can be digitized will be affected by the outcome, as tens of billions of dollars are at stake.

Net neutrality, also called network neutrality, has three components. First, users should have access to any content they choose while being […]

U.S. Internet growth is stalling. And it’s not just the old or poor who are living offline

Business Week

March 20, 2006

These days, getting answers to most questions seems like a no-brainer. For everything from who won an Olympic speed skating race to when to plant tomatoes, most people turn to Google or one of its […]

According to a report published by ABI Research, municipal Wi-Fi networks covered only about 1,500 square miles worldwide (3885 square kilometers). Yet by 2010, that figure is expected to increase to 126,000 square miles (over 325,000 square km), an area slightly larger than Poland, or the U.S. state of New Mexico. The bulk of these […]

A new Pew Center Study adds to the growing canon of research supporting Community Internet as a vital social resource.

From the report: Our evidence calls into question fears that social relationships — and community — are fading away in America. Instead of disappearing, people’s communities are transforming: The traditional human orientation to neighborhood- and village-based […]

Sandra Gittlen writes in Network World:

In Chicago, an organization called Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) is using wireless connections to provide Internet access to families in low-income neighborhoods. Through the project, called Wireless Community Network, CNT is creating a rooftop network of wireless repeater nodes for more than 800 households in four neighborhoods. […]

Across the country, organizations use network technology to empower the less fortunate.

From Network World, February 6, 2006

By Sandra Gittlen

For Vakil Kuner, the work involved in setting up and tearing down a secure wireless network to support more than two dozen government agencies and private organizations for a single day is well worth it.

Kuner, IT director […]

From the Chicago Tribune, February 17, 2006

Chicago seeks proposals for citywide Internet access

By Jon Van Tribune staff reporter

February 17, 2006

The City of Chicago wants to blanket its streets and neighborhoods with a wireless Internet signal, granting residents and visitors access to the Web wherever they are–on streets, in homes, offices and shopping malls.

Chicago’s chief information officer […]

From the New York Times, January 19, 2006

by GLENN FLEISHMAN

SEATTLE, Jan. 18 - The idea of building citywide wireless networks from the community level was suspiciously simple back in 2000, although the plans sounded like the work of underground revolutionaries. “All of us were very idealistic, and all quite strongly opinionated,” said Adam Shand, founder […]

From the Associated Press, October 4, 2005

by MATTHEW FORDAHL

Hours after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and knocked out telecommunications across much of the region, Mac Dearman visited shelters in northern Louisiana to connect telephones.

Dearman doesn’t work for a phone company.

He owns a local wireless Internet service provider, and the gear he set up […]

From New York Times Magazine, September 18, 2005

By Clive Thompson

When was the last time you heard a “busy tone” on a telephone? Probably not for years. Our phone system is so robust, our mobile phones are so ubiquitous and voice mail and e-mail are such reliable backups that instant, unhindered access to friends, colleagues and […]

From Network World, September 16, 2005

By John Cox

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a volunteer group of network and wireless experts has moved from outfitting small northeastern Louisiana shelters with wireless Internet access and VoIP phones to preparing a desperately needed 45M bit/sec wireless pipe for the entire relief effort in devastated Bay Saint Louis, […]

From The Washington Post, Friday, September 9, 2005

By Arshad Mohammed

Hurricane Katrina survivor Caprice Butler had been at a church shelter in rural northeastern Louisiana for nearly a week when she finally heard her husband’s voice on an Internet phone running on an improvised wireless network.

“I was just overjoyed,” she said yesterday, tearing up as she […]