As the global digital divide narrows, who is being left behind?

There is a sense that information and communications technologies (ICT) have the potential to give people the freedom they need to lead the lives they value. Papers published in this journal consider how ICTs are the means that enable people to achieve their ends of better livelihoods. This line of research builds upon the work of Amartya Sen’s (1999) book entitled Development as Freedom, where development is seen as the process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In particular, Andersson, Grönlund and Wicander’s Special Issue in this journal (2012) illustrates how development can be seen as freedom when the capabilities by which people are able to achieve their ends are expanded through the use of ICTs. If people have the freedom to achieve the aims they value, then they will be able to lead better lives through their use of ICTs. The outcome of such better livelihoods can be seen in terms of human, social and economic development. The papers in this issue continue to build upon this discovery by considering the role of ICTs in enabling development as freedom. It discusses how the Internet may or may not support freedoms to achieve better livelihoods and delves deeper into the challenges faced by people whose lives are changed for better or for worse by their use of ICTs. There is a divide between people who are able to use ICTs to achieve their freedoms and those who are not. The digital divide is seen to keep those who do not have access to ICTs from being able to participate in the information economy and take the opportunities it makes available. There are multiple definitions of the digital divide. There are different types of digital divides. The most commonly known is referred to as the global digital divide which considers the disparities in ICT access and use between countries and or regions of the world. The digital divide has often been measured from a narrow, technologically deterministic perspective that focuses on the “technology gap” to allow policy-makers to have an “objective” tool to enable them to allocate resources (Barzilai-Nahon, 2006; Servon, 2002). The global digital divide as measured by the World Bank and United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU), assesses the differences in access and the use of ICTs between countries. In their investigation of the global digital divide, Pick and Azari (2008) found foreign direct investment, education and government prioritization to have a significant impact. Reports that the global digital divide has been narrowing in studies by the World Bank, ITU and Orbicom as described in Sciadas (2005) has led governments and policy-makers to provide services over the Internet. The effects on economic development from the use of ICTs to achieve freedoms are many. These benefits range from giving small businesses the ability to access new markets, obtain knowledge and skills they need adopt more efficient cultivation of crops and increase their competitiveness by offering better goods and services. For every 100 cell phones in a typical developing country, GDP grows by a factor of 0.8 (Economist, 2009). According to the World Bank, there is growth by a factor of 3.4 between businesses in a typical developing country which uses ICT and those that do not. This difference amounts to a 750% growth in businesses that adopt ICTs compared to those that do not. The same study showed an increase in profitability by 113%