1 The Role of NGOs in Bridging the Digital Divide

The issue of the digital divide has become a critical aspect of inequality and social injustice in our world particular after the first report “Falling Through the Net ” issued by NTIA in 1995. Debates have been focused on its potentially evil effects on social exclusion as a consequence of differential access to the global network for countries, social groups, genders, and ethnic minorities. However, within developed countries the differences in Internet or information access that existed in the early 90s are rapidly fading away with the widespread diffusion of the medium and the dropping price of computers and Internet access. The information gap seems to rapidly narrowing in North America, the OECD countries, Japan, and Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). The focus of the digital divide, however, seems to shift from physical access to information technology (IT) and the Internet to the issues of content and training. That using the information provided by IT and the Internet rather than just having the hardware and the access may have redefined the notion of the digital divides. The more we move into information society, the more education, in the broadest sense, becomes the foundation for real equal opportunity, indeed the foundation for a sustainable society