Digital Divide Defines and Widen Gaps in Global ICT
There is some interesting research on the digital divide from Bridges.org, an international non-profit organization that "promotes the effective use of ICT in the developing world to reduce poverty and improve people's lives."
Much of the data on the bridges.org site is quantitative information that describes the gap between developed and undeveloped nations... I was stunned to see that the 14 million phone lines in Manhattan total more than the entire African continent.
Of greater interest in the study of technology gaps is what happens once a country gains access (see Bridges.org for their definition of real access) and personal mastery of ICT, particularly computer access to the Internet. In the most general terms, class divisions become more clearly defined and at an exponential rate. The difference in class between the haves and the have nots is relatively easy to understand when a person reads the statistics on levels of available infrastructure from one country to another. What is unseen, particularly by the have nots, is the distance/separation and explosion of advancement in class that those with access experience, in effect, creating a 'super haves' class... leaving the have nots in the proverbial dust.