Abstract
Digital inclusion proposals are oriented towards specific groups of people. These groups are excluded due to their qualities or lack of them, their attitude, socio-political factors, economic factors, or just by the geographic zone where they live. Since 1999 several strategies have been proposed, either related to educational or technological aspects. The lessons learned are collected with the aim of proposing an adapted model that allows defining a set of good practices. In order to know what technology is the most suited to promote the digital inclusion of each group, multiple variables are analysed. A higher number of variables allow better groups description regarding their context and the relevance of each variable for each group. In this work the authors discuss the dimensions of the group profiles, the factors affecting them, and the infrastructure and software solutions that can change the situation. Finally a simple graphic is proposed to show the dimensions of causes and user groups in order to improve their comparison.
TopBackground
In 2003, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations, national governments and civil society organizations, celebrated the World Summit Information Society (WSIS) in order to prepare the action plans and policies that would help to reduce the inequality in the ICTs access. In fact, countries, and public and private organizations have promoted different initiatives and projects to minimize the e-exclusion. Since 2005, there have been five editions of the WSIS report, presenting initiatives, tools and policies that have been developed by several countries (ITU, 2013). The main projects to avoid e-exclusion are related to each one of the action lines presented in Table 1.
Key Terms in this Chapter
E-Inclusion: Policies and social movements intended to encourage the use of digital technologies.
Digital Divide: Difference between people who have access and skills to use ICT and those who do not have these opportunities or skills.
Marginalized Communities: Socially excluded groups of people for different reasons, such as age, physical or mental disabilities, economic status, access to education, or live in isolated places or depressed areas.
Digital Exclusion Factors: Different dimensions on which digital exclusion occurs with the advancement of technology.
Digital Exclusion: People at risk of being excluded from access and use of digital technologies.
Non-Believers: Users who refuse to use e-Government services, despite most of these are real Internet users. The causes are lack of ability, lack of awareness, lack of trust, or because they prefer a personal contact, simplicity or do not expect to save time.
Digital inclusion: Degree to which information technologies are employed by a community.