ABSTRACT
International organizations have sounded the alarm. The OECD warns that affluent states at the cutting edge of technological change have reinforced their lead in the new knowledge economy but so far the benefits of the Internet have not yet trickled down far to Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, let alone to the poorest areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. Many official agencies have expressed concern about the development of widening digital divide within societies. Technological opportunities are often highly unevenly distributed, even in nations like Australia, the United States and Sweden at the forefront of the information society. The latest data show that notable divides in Internet penetration still exist between Americans with different levels of income and education, different racial and ethnic groups, old and young, single and dual-parent families, and those with and without disabilities. Global and social divides mean that Internet politics will disproportionately benefit the elite.
