[Air-l] digital divide def

[Ed Lamoureux]

try this

<http://www1.soc.american.edu/students/ij/co_3/digitaldivide/ 
history.htm>
The catchy phrase that describes the divide between the tech-savvy and  
those without digital skills has engendered another divide—disagreement  
among the experts as to who coined the term.

  Some claim it was a digital divide guru who worked formerly at the  
U.S. Department of Commerce.

Others say the credit should go to a pair of former Los Angeles Times  
reporters.

  "No one really knows," says Andy Carvin, one of the coordinators of  
the Digital Divide Network at the Washington, D.C.-based Benton  
Foundation .

  "It's discussed several times a year on my digital divide listserv and  
every time someone is credited with coining it, that person posts a  
message saying, 'Nope, wasn't me.'"

Many believe Larry Irving, the former assistant secretary for  
Communications and Information over at Commerce, may have coined the  
term.

"I am certain I stole the term, but I am not certain who I stole it  
from," states Irving on Carvin's listserv.

  Jonathan Webber of the Industry Standard makes a compelling case that  
somewhere back around 1995 he and Amy Harmon, when both were with the  
LA Times, invented the term to describe the social division between  
those who were very involved in technology and those who were not.

  According to the Benton Foundation, the term was first used in  
discussions of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) Advisory  
Council by former President William Jefferson Clinton circa 1993.

A recently released book by Benjamin M. Companie entitled, "The Digital  
Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth," credits Lloyd Morrisset,  
former president of the Markle Foundation, with creating the term.  
Linguist Frank Dance maintains Morrisset also is unsure if he deserves  
the credit.

Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Director, Multimedia Program and New Media Center
Associate Professor, Speech Communication
1501 W. Bradley
Bradley University
Peoria IL  61625
309-677-2378
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell/
http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/