Jeff Utecht – Educator, Consultant, Author
The Connection Divide
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Worldwide broadband penetration
ComScore Internet Worldwide Stats
OECD Broadband Portal
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about 1 year ago
I think this is a very important consideration for educational technologists working overseas. Just as the so called “digital divide” is factor that still determines a demographics access to, adoption of, and adaptation to new technologies –or not– the ability to keep up with new trends and methodologies which require consistent bandwidth such as thin client and cloud computing or even learning activities that are reliant on a fast and constant Internet connection are difficult to implement and execute in many part of the world. I happen to be lucky enough to be working in one of the most wired societies –South Korea so it’s not an issue here but it certainly has been in other nations I’ve worked in.
about 1 year ago
In Indonesia we constantly struggle for bandwidth, which is pretty frustrating. We keep hoping the situation will improve, eventually…
about 1 year ago
I know where you’re heading with the “Connection Divide”, but the graph and the comparison do not seem right.
– Moore’s Law is a doubling effect, meaning the graph should have the processing speed escalating in an x^2 relationship, not in a straight line.
– If the graph is normalized to Moore’s law, the rate of broadband adoption being also straight is would indicate that it too is increasing at an x^2 relationship, which in most countries it is not as it is hitting saturation point.
– Moore’s Law is a theoretical concept. It is indicating the doubling of processing power available per unit. This does not take into consideration the proliferation of computers worldwide, so it has only partial input to the worldwide increase of processing power. You would need the worldwide increase of processing power if you are going to compare it to the worldwide increase of broadband connectivity.
– If you consider USA to be an example of broadband penetration (it’s ~20th on the list of worldwide penetration), the graph at the site you quoted would indicate that broadband penetration is actually increasing faster than the adoption of computers (if you assume anyone having a computer also has a phone line).
In general though I believe that there is a “connection divide” lagging behind the “digital divide”, and both of these divides with inhibit developing countries competing in the new knowledge economy.