Do you have any personal experience with digital divide (that you would like to share)?

I initiated Global Stewardship Foundation Africa, a program that brings refurbished computers to underprivileged schools in Sub-Sahara, and also provides training in their use to teachers. I find it very hard to accept that we, in the developed world, have so many millions of unwanted computers that we throw away every year, and send only a small fraction of these to school children in underdeveloped countries.

There is an inventor dilemma in the IT industry: whether to produce expensive business computers for the elite or to produce inexpensive computers for the low income, public. What is your opinion on this dilemma?

I feel that information technology belongs to all, especially to the low-income public, who might not have the means to obtain information in any other way; case in point, rural African children, in remote areas, can learn by online courses, making education available on a relatively low cost basis, as compared to setting up whole schools with libraries, and all the overhead of teachers and resources that are just not available to them. I also feel that on an economic level, it's a game of numbers, and it would be more beneficial to sell to more people at a lower cost, than just a few at a higher cost.

Do you think we have made enough effort to bridge the digital divide? Do you think the digital divide would widen or lessen in the future? Why?

I definitely do not think we have made enough effort, on the international level, to bridge the digital divide. One only needs to look at global statistics to see this. I do feel that there will be an improvement in lessening the divide as more and more countries learn to responsibly recycle computers at end of life. I think this is one of the biggest deterrents to reuse of used computers internationally and needs to be addressed NOW.

Do you know any organizations that make effort to bridge the digital divide?

Yes, there are many that work on the national level and more and more that are trying to do so on an international scale., but I feel that there needs to be a concerted effort by governments to be involved in solving this problem.

Internet access in low-income or marginal areas is a problem partly because the unavailability of broadband and telephone line. Do you think wireless technology can provide a solution to this problem in those areas?

Yes, definitely.

Language differences also contribute to DD – but it is of interest for IT companies to make their products available to more consumers. Has there been any significant effort made to make the Internet and software in general more international? Do you think such effort can help bridging DD?

Yes, ofcourse. I think that Linux is about the only software that is addressing this problem to countries that cannot afford this technology and seems very promising in helping to bridge the digital divide.

What do you think can be the (most effective) solutions for DD?

I feel that there needs to be a concerted effort by governments to be involved in solving this problem and working together on this. I also feel that more funding assistance should be given to programs that are trying to bridge the digital divide.

In some developing countries, a response to the inability to afford software is using pirate software. Do you think pirate software can lessen the digital divide? Do you think free software (such as the GNU project) would play a role in bridging DD?

I feel that software is much too expensive, even for the average person. It is for this reason that it is pirated; again I feel that the software companies would do better to lessen their price labels and sell to much more people, as this would solve the problems of pirating to a very large extent.