Closing Digital Divides: The United States' Policies (original) (raw)

Since the emergence of information technology, the gap between information ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ has been broadening: the information rich become richer, while the in formation poor are poorer. This situation contributes to various issues related to individuals and society. In terestingly enough, although the United States is one of the leading countries in the information and communication technology (ICT) field, according to many studies, the digital divide still exists in many layers and from different perspectives. This paper critically discusses how the US anticipates these issues as well as how national information policy is emerging to close the digital divide.

Songphan Choemprayong is currently a doctoral student at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Address: 100 Manning Hall CB#3360, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3360, U.S.A. E-mail: songphan@unc.edu

Received: 2006-04-14

Accepted: 2006-09-12

Published Online: 2008-01-31

Published in Print: 2006-December-19