In Estonia digital divide is found mostly between elderly and younger people.
While surfing the Internet in hopes of finding data about digital divide, I found the following document: "Digital Divide in Estonia and How to Bridge It."
According to that document in 2002 58% of Estonian population is non-users. They may know the benefits of computers, but are disturbed with lack of motivation or skills. Half of non-users are not aware of the benefits of the Internet. Those willing to use the Internet are open-minded and can manage technological difficulties. The other people who cannot or will not use the Internet are either retired people, "passive people", and "blue collar" individuals. Retired people mostly have not got in contact with computers and thus lack user knowledge and are not aware or do not want to understand the benefits of the Internet and computers.
"Passive people" see no benefits from using a computer, they do not have the need to use it, they are against technology and prefer to use traditional media. They have little interest outside their daily life. They are in trouble handling the user interfaces and computers in general.
"Blue Collars" are mainly workers who do not use computers in their work. About a half of the group has the same characteristics as the previous group, with the exception that personal monetary gain would attract them to the Interent. This group is characterised by psychological, monetary and technical barriers.
In 2002 there were an estimated 176,000 retired people in Estonia who belong to the
“Passive People” group; “Blue Collars“ include 151,000 workers plus 42,000 medium-level specialists and client service personnel. To most of these people lack of motivation is the main reason not to use the Internet.
I think nowadays the situation has not changed much. In my workplace there are around 60 workers all of whom have to use a computer one way or another. There are at least 5 people aged 40-60 who are not willing to use a computer outside work, they fill in e-Kool only. One of these people does not even fill in e-Kool, she has delegated her rights to another person. Another example is a person with principles, she is over 40, she fills in e-Kool, but does other things manually. As everyone does not hand the reports anymore since parents can see their childrens' marks from e-Kool, she still fills in report cards for pupils. I would say that 2/3 of workers in my workplace are active Internet users either for finding materials, browsing through their documentation, etc.
Analyse and describe (in your blog) Internet availability in your country. How big is the availability difference for urban and rural regions? Do you consider this a problem?
I think that in our country the internet coverage is almost everywhere. Visitestonia says that nearly 100% of our capital city is covered with wifi. Internet World Stats suggests that out of almost 1400000 people 760000, or 57% of population are active Internet users. ICT Statistics Newslog provides us with the fact that Estonian Government expects 90% of the country to have access to 100 Mbps network by the year 2012.
According to Estonian Informatics Centre, a year 2008 initiative KülaTee3 has managed to get providers of connectivity for low-density population areas in every county.
The abovementioned statistics show that there should be no problem connecting to the Internet, but perhaps these two topics - digital divide and Internet availability are in connection? Nowadays the Internet expenses should not be a problem to many households. I think that the economical situation in Estonia has perhaps increased the number of households without the Internet, but there are other places where a person can access the Internet, like libraries, wifi networks in different places, etc. I do not consider internet access a problem, but I think the problem lies in those people's minds who do not want to use it.
For Estonians: compare the current situation in Estonia to the four scenarios of "Estonia 2010". Which one is the closest to the reality?
The four scenarios of "Estonia 2010" are the following:
- "Militaristic information oasis"
- "South Finland"
- "The Ferryman"
- "Grand Slam"
I would say that innovation is the key word of Estonia's future. I will try to comment on these scenarios from my own perspective. The fist situation is impossible, because our troops would never achieve the size they are in the "angry little country". Technologically other big countries are way ahead of us, and I would never believe Estonia would start inventing a nuclear weapon-like monster. What concerns the second scheme, I think that Estonia has a fear for Russia and with nearly 26% of Russian population (CIA World Factbook) we just cannot break apart from Russian influence. Still, being closest to reality, I believe this could be mixed with Grand Slam and get the current situation with Estonia striving for innovative outcomes to save the current economic situation and somehow raise its position in the world perspective. The ferryman scenario would be excluded, because to my mind Estonia cannot be only a transit country.
How important do you deem the social cohesiveness (or caring) in reaching ubicomp?
I think that caring as a notion is still a high value. It is important, even in ubicomp.
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