The Digital Divide: Current and Future Research Directions - MISRC ...

3.3 Future Research Directions
Bridging the digital divide requires a partnership from public policy makers, for-
profit businesses, educational institutions, and the disconnected themselves. Providing
access to PCs, the Internet, and other ICT raises many issues related to all five of our
theoretical perspectives. What public policies are economically feasible and hold
promise for long-term success? What are the sociological implications of bridging or not
bridging the divide? How can the proper economic incentives be provided to non-users
to encourage adoption? What public policy initiatives can be used to incent for-profit
businesses to encourage cooperation in this effort? What technical design solutions can
be used to bridge the divide and how effective are they?
Providing public access to PCs and the Internet through schools, public libraries,
and community centers is considered one of the most relevant approaches to bridging the
digital divide. However, it is not clear how effective this approach is for actually
overcoming many of the barriers for the disconnected. There are several research
questions that are raised when this solution is proposed. For example, to what extent
does public access to the Internet and computer technology actually alleviate the digital
divide problem? What other problems might public access raise? How do different
demographic segments make use of public access locations? In particular, it is not clear
how effective this approach is to solve the various types of divides identified in the
previous subsection. For example, how willing are people to engage in online commerce
activities from public places? Are people willing to enter their personal information,
such as credit card numbers or tax information, into public computer terminals? The use
of such public access terminals and kiosks extends beyond issues related to the digital
divide since more public kiosks are appearing in a variety of for-profit establishments
who seek to provide their customers with a richer customer service experience.
RECOMMENDATION 1: Researchers should examine the efficacy and impact
of conducting information gathering and online transactions at publicly-available
Internet access points.
In the previous discussion we raised several important questions related to the
inequality of e-commerce usage. For managers and businesses seeking to extend their
online presence to additional people, questions related to the adoption and usage of e-
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