Staring Down the Digital Divide

I didn't realize until I checked now that I haven't had an AO piece up for seven weeks. Wow. I thought I laid off writing for about a month, but I guess my sense of time has been off. Now since the wedding planning and wedding is over I will devote more time to getting more articles out at AlwaysOn. Anyway, check it out:

Staring Down the Digital Divide
Bloggers are the haves in the new new economy, but there are plenty of have-nots as well—and none of us can afford to forget them.

Last week on my honeymoon in Crete, Greece, I found myself detached from civilization. Not so much because of the remote locale, the lack of video-on-demand or cable news in my hotel suite, or even the dearth of America fast-food outlets. The real reason for my detachment was that I didn't have internet access. That's right: No internet access for an entire week.

Each day I listened as hotel staff explained to me that their "servers were down"—which toward the end of my stay I came to interpret as they were never up. There was no access. Ever. A couple days before we left, I spoke with one of the staff technicians, who fed me the same line but also informed me (when asked) that their connection speed was "56K." 56K? I hadn't heard that number/letter combination in about a decade. If this is the speed the majority of the island is connecting at, a digital divide definitely exists between the people here and the folks back home in Silicon Valley. (full article)


UPDATE: Since the old AlwaysOn site was taken down and posts were not properly transferred, just read the copy at OhmyNews here.