Elon University

Archives: Expert Predictions

The Internet and the Poor

Networks of personal acquaintances serve as ‘bridges’ between islands of other close groups of friends, workers, business associates, or research communities. Bridging these islands of personal relationships through acquaintances broadens one’s knowledge of the world, expands horizons of opportunity, and helps in career advancement or changing jobs in a weak economy … This phenomena is taken for granted by Internet users … These resource connections often lead one to new acquaintances and relationships associated with them … Internet mail has been found to be a highly effective means of establishing and maintaining personal acquaintance networks.

The Internet and the Poor

Electronic mail appears to significantly reduce the costs of acquiring and maintaining new acquaintances beyond community boundaries, an ability that those with discretionary time and money tend to take for granted.

The Internet and the Poor

The price/performance gains of modems, the entry of the Internet into popular culture heralded by the July 1994 cover of Time Magazine, new services such as Mosaic, and the emergence of new private service providers around the country will all be contributing factors to continued rapid growth.

The Internet and the Poor

Data suggests that by late 1995 at least 39 million will be at or below the poverty line, and the number may be higher. By the end of 1995 there may also be over 40 million individuals using networked information services from home. If these projects are accurate, only 5.09 million of these network users (12.7 percent) would be living in households earning under $15,000.

The Internet and the Poor

Impressive gains in manufacturing productivity, brought about through process-efficiency improvements using information technologies, have not created equivalent employment opportunities. There will be no new jobs in warehouses where just-in-time inventory systems have eliminated the need for them. The same effect is about to roll through the reinvention of government, as automated delivery systems eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. Finally, if one assumes that the younger generations tend to be literate in the use of computers and information technologies, the dramatic loss of real income in this population group over the past 10 years is particularly disturbing.

The Internet and the Poor

A universal-service policy … could encourage a leveling effect between information haves and have-nots. Such a policy would flow from a federal framework or set of guidelines, and would provides states considerable flexibility, allowing decisions to be made at the local level. Such a policy would combine market incentives and individual tax credits to increase computer ownership among low-income households, provide electronic mail services for children and job-seekers, promote development of public access network services, and fund network literacy programs through adult education programs, public libraries, and schools.

The Internet and the Poor

The total numbers of Americans using the Internet may begin to surpass the number of those living below the poverty level – 39.3 million in 1993 – by the end of 1995. This indicator could define the emergence of a two-tiered society of information haves and have-nots, especially since home ownership of personal computers and individual use of networked information have been growing most rapidly within groups with higher incomes and education levels. Such a condition may have serious implications for low-income groups, who tend to lack access to advanced information technology, and to states that may be left behind due to economic differentials affecting information infrastructure.

Internet Architectural and Policy Implications for Migration from High-End User to the ‘New User’

Is the Internet ultimately a common carrier? If it is, what does that imply about access and access control and discipline? We argue that the Internet is truly a common carrier as stated in common law. As a common carrier, the Internet has the responsibility of being an open network with open interfaces. This is readily achieved by the workings of the Internet Society, which sets the standards and establishes the overall architectural evolution for the Internet. The Internet is unique in its ability to deal with users in a fully distributive format.

Internet Architectural and Policy Implications for Migration from High-End User to the ‘New User’

The issue of access should be seen as an issue of flexibility and ubiquity as opposed to an issue of regulation and revenue assignment … The access fees that are currently charged by the LECs reflect a worldview that is of a pre-divestiture nature and represent an attempt to continue to support the local user at the expense of the long-distance user … If one uses a wireless scheme or cable scheme, access fees should be eliminated and access should be subject to competitive market pricing and not monopolistic LEC pricing.