Digital poverty roxana barrantes

Digital Poverty – What does it mean?

Roxana Barrantes

Motivation

Design of poor pro-market policies must

begin with the understanding of the

needs they should address

Could the needs be defined in term of what others have (digital divide) or

from a set of minimum

requirements (unsatisfied needs)?

Digital Needs?

Digital ization

taken for granted

Humans need

information and

communication T h a t i s w h a t d e f i n e s t h e

h u m a n s p e c i e s

BUT…IC & Digitalization

are now considered sinonymus

Masure given of the amount of

information in the world by giving an

estimate of the bytes storaged in computersWhat about the information in the heads of

elders or that of indigeneous populations?

Knowledge

Societies need it to succeed

Built upon creativity & information

Creativity can be considered

a personal feature, whereas

information comes from

human interaction –

society

Information

Very costly to create

Inexpensiv

e to distribute

Digitalization makes

it even cheaper

AND…Information is

unequally distributed in

society

Not everybody satisfies their

information needs

vs

Info

rmat

ion

Pove

rty

One can talk about those

excluded from relevant

information for their well-being

Define information and communication

poverty, its connection to

poverty reducing policies and its contribution to development

• What role does access to information and communication through ICT play within the structural causes of poverty?

• The digital divide discussions focus on the actual gap but not on the causes.

Structural

Causes of

Poverty

Information and Communication PovertyInformation not only a source of

knowledge

It is a source of advancement of economic, social,

political and cultural freedoms

IC poverty is a dimension of poverty, but affects other dimensions

It needs specifically designed policies

IC Poverty

Components

Constraints

• Deprivation of basic capabilities to participate in the information society.

• Minimum capabilities define the IC poverty line

• Assets• Information• Communication

• Local• Usage• Technological

Proposal to measure IC Poverty

Digital Poverty• Complementary approach, using economic demand theory

• ICTs are demanded because what is needed is information and communication which are more difficult to measure and observe.

Connectivity

Communication

Information

ICT as economic

goods

ICT

can

fu

lfil

l …

Digital Poverty Defined using concepts similar to Unsatisfied

basic needs

Criteria

Age EducationAvailable

Infraestructure

Functionality

Digital PovertyLevel

Func t iona li ty

Human Capital

Extremely

Digitally Poor

Digitally

Wealthy

Connected

Digitally

Poor

Interaction: e-government/e-

business. Content Creation

Internet Access- e-mail and information user.

Computer Use

Radio and TV Access. Acces to Voice

Communication (Fixed or Mobile)

No Access to media. Only Radio and TV

Receptors

Liter

acy

(lite

racy

/edu

catio

n le

vel)

Age

[email protected]

rg.peRoxana Barrantes