Digital Divide (especially dedicated to Preetam Balla)
The digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology, and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalance both in physical access to technology and the resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. The term is commensurate with the term knowledge divide, both reflecting the access of various social groupings to information and knowledge, typically gender, income, race, and by location. The term global digital divide refers to differences in access between countries. There are several definitions of the Term. Bharat Mehra defines it simply as the troubling gap between those who use computers and the Internet and those who do not. More recently, some have used the term to refer to gaps in broadband network access.[3] The term can mean not only unequal access to computer hardware, but also inequalities between groups of people in the ability to use information technology fully.