The far side of the digital divide is not necessarily Camelot.

"The use of these Web 2.0 technologies - rich internet applications that encourage user collaboration, interaction and contribution - are being carried over to the Obama administration, in a number of areas. They are being used to elicit citizen responses in the administration's efforts to make the government more open and responsive and as part of White House and State Department public diplomacy programs. ... For the State's Alec Ross, the biggest obstacle to public diplomacy efforts is the digital divide - the sparse adoption of broadband internet connections in many parts of the developing world. 'Whenever you push a message through new media you are excluding an important segment of society,' he said. 'But the government can’t wait for ubiquitous access to broadband to take advantage of web technologies.' One way to bridge the digital divide is to provide rich media adaptable to smart phones, according to Ross. 'People will far likely be accessing the network through a smart phone than a laptop in the developing world,' he said. Ross also believes that US public diplomacy efforts could drive demand for internet access around the world. 'Obama putting an online video out there targeted to Persian speakers will make them want to go online,' he said." Peter A Buxbaum, ISN Security Watch, 1 July 2009. I think Persian speakers wanted to go online, and in fact many already were, before President Obama's video. But here's the thing about the digital divide: A scant three decades ago, people in many countries had radios with shortwave bands (shortwave was used for their domestic broadcasting). They could hear their moribund state-controlled domestic broadcasting service, or they could tune to BBC and VOA. That was it. Now, when these people cross the "digital divide," they will have access to tens of thousands of sources of news, entertainment, gossip, and disinformation. BBC, VOA, America.gov, and State Department Facebook and Twitter accounts will have to compete with all that. Posted: 04 Jul 2009 Permalink Print