When Alma Cota de Yanez, director of the Sonoran Business Foundation in Nogales, Mexico wants to contact a staff member from a local NGO, she often relies on an ancient communications technology -- word of mouth. She recounts a recent experience in which she was trying to meet with one such colleague whose only telephone was not working. After making several phone calls, the board president arranged a sidewalk meeting on the other side of town. "In our community, we can't just say, 'Email me!' It's not that easy. We rely most on social communication networks."
Jack Shuler is a project director and instructor for the Brooklyn College Community Partnership for Research and Learning (BCCP) where he helps facilitate close ties between the college and underserved high school students in Brooklyn.
This, she says, is due in part to high telephone costs as her community only has access to dial-up Internet service, making emailing prohibitively expensive. Cota de Yanez also notes that when organizations are able to pay for telephone service, their access is still slow. "Recently we were forced to hire someone to drive around town for us. He is our living, breathing communications technology!"
While it seems exceptional, the experience of the Sonoran Business Foundation is not unique; it is simply one manifestation of what has been termed the digital divide.
The "digital divide" describes the gap in access to information and communications technologies, specifically computer technologies, that has developed in the information age. A study undertaken by researchers Jan Van Dijk of the Netherlands and Kenneth Hacker of New Mexico (2003) acknowledges four different levels of the digital divide:
- lack of elementary experience --mental access
- no possession of computers and network connections --material access
- lack of digital skills --skills access
- lack of significant usage opportunities --usage access.
This is inextricably linked to an overarching communications divide, and the larger issue has been cited by policymakers, researchers, and activists as one of the key human rights issues of the 21st Century. This concern is voiced in Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
In effect, those who lack communications capacity are at a significant economic and social disadvantage. Information technologies may not be the cure-all for the world's inequities that some have imagined, but they can support the creation of communication networks that enhance development and philanthropic efforts. Because of this capability, it is imperative that we work to increase access to current technology hardware, and develop access to the education and training required to utilize these technologies.
Most participants in the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership agree that a digital divide does exist -- particularly between local NGOs and the Border Community Foundations. When organizations participating in this project lack sufficient access to communications technologies, they are cut out of the information exchange loop that high-speed Internet access affords their colleagues. Judy Gresser of Yuma Community Foundation notes that "If a nonprofit does not have email access, effective communication becomes burdensome."
In addition, the World Wide Web is a useful tool to organizations working towards enhanced effectiveness and sustainability. Partnership participants have noted that better access to the web would provide information useful to both grantmakers and grantwriters, such as RFPs, conference notices, and online training opportunities. The web also serves as a forum for building organizational profiles and broadcasting local work to a worldwide audience of potential supporters.
But the problem of the digital divide is not easily resolved, particularly because the level of "material access" varies from community to community. On the one hand, large cities on both sides of the border are increasingly "wired" with dial-up Internet services with a number of communities going online via high-speed DSL or cable services. Satellite services are expanding access in more remote areas. Most communities in Mexico and the United States have access to the Internet through computers in cyber cafes, public schools, community colleges, and libraries. Just because border communities are "wired" does not mean that all border community foundations and NGOs are able to go online with ease. Alma Cota de Yanez notes that NGO often wait for hours to use library computers to send out emails and do reporting. As a solution, Cota de Yanez suggests arranging specific time slots in such public spaces for NGO staff members to use computers uninterrupted.
According to Russ Jones, a board member at the Yuma Community Foundation, the greatest digital divide exists at the smaller BCFs or NGOs because they lack the financial resources to buy the latest equipment, pay for training, and cover ongoing maintenance costs. "When they have to choose whether to pay their employees or pay for their subscription to the Internet," he says," they pay their employees." This problem is particularly acute on the Mexican side of the border in communities where only dial-up service is available. Access to affordable equipment is also an issue in Mexico and the government there prohibits the importation of used computers. Pablo Farias of the Ford Foundation suggests promoting the "community technology center" model -- going into the communities with the least access and establishing centralized spaces where people can have free training and Internet services. But he adds that in addition to bridging this material divide we need to consider content available to users once they go online, "Community technology centers build the access, but who builds the content? There is probably a need for variety of content to be developed by partners on both sides of the border."
Nora Dominguez of Matamoros Community Foundation acknowledges an ongoing effort on part of local business, civil society, and government officials to establish sophisticated communications networks in her community:
"En Matamoros existe conciencia de que debemos prepararnos para la era tecnológica que estamos viviendo ya, aquí y ahora…los distribuidores de computadoras acaban de formar la Asociación De Distribuidores De Tecnologías De Información De Matamoros A.C. a través de la cual recibirán mayor capacitación, actualización, y varios apoyos para su desarrollo."
Gaining the hardware to put a community online is only half the battle according to Dominguez and her peers. Lack of experience with and education about computers is perhaps the most difficult roadblock. Dominguez claims, "El principal obastaculo es mental, la falta de interés en la utilización de nuevas herramientas de trabajo o communicacion." Dominguez believes that the first step is providing training for staff and volunteers of all ages to help them overcome these "mental obstacles." Local higher education institutions and the IT departments of area corporations are potential sites for establishing such training. Russ Jones suggests that: "US corporations in particular need to know that there is this small group of BCFs collaborating and doing great work so that they can work such assistance into their budgets." Richard Kiy, president and CEO of International Communication Foundation suggests focusing on the future by allocating resources to better educate youth-future development workers-in their public schools.
Judy Gresser believes that enhanced access through effective training and up-to-date equipment would improve the ability of all organizations involved in the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership, "to serve their constituents and accomplish their missions." She adds, "They would have additional access to online grants, be better able to keep up to date with legislative matters that impact the nonprofit world."
Through better use of modern communications technologies, BCFs can better act as organizers and catalysts for development. Nora Dominguez shares her sentiments acknowledging that improved access, "a la tecnologia seria un herramienta muy poderosa para la comunidad. Se esablece una competividad mas equitativa por el intercambio de informacion y la fortaleza de enlaces para beneficios comunitarios."