The Global Digital Divide: Past, Present, and Future

The changing nature of the digital divide challenge and what we have learned (and will have to do next) in order to envision and deploy solutions -- now and in the future. Ten years ago, the conversation around the ‘digital divide’ was centered on internet access around the world. That issue hasn’t gone away and remains deeply important. Yet today, the digital divide is not just in the context of internet access, but in relation to what connectivity enables; for example, the digital infrastructure to mobilize human capital at a distance.  This panel will broaden the digital divide discussion to include regions, such as Africa and the Middle East, that are all too often overlooked while addressing the evolution of the digital divide(s) globally and the importance of addressing the main drivers behind current and future iterations of these divides going forward.

Questions about this event can be directed to the Science and Technology Program through email at stip@wilsoncenter.org or Twitter @WilsonSTIP using hashtag #GlobalDigitalDivide

Speakers

Steven Weber

Associate Dean and Head of School at the UC Berkeley School of Information; Faculty Director of the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity

Sukaina Al-Nasrawi

Social Affairs Expert, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

Zena Kebede

Technical Program Manager, Microsoft Airband Initiative

Moderator

Melissa K. Griffith

Public Policy Fellow;
Non-Resident Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC); and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies (CSS)