Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, so fast that it makes one wonder if users can keep up with the new terminology, skills and knowledge needed to navigate their way through new digital divides.
This interesting topic was found on Scientific American in their article, “Digital Divide and Social Media: Connectivity Doesn’t End the Digital Divide, Skills Do.” Digital inequalities exist in technological infrastructure and Internet access. Those inequalities include the lack of digital and media competency, critical thinking and communication skills needed to navigate and evaluate data online, and an information and knowledge gap. This information-based society we live in is moving toward the next generation of the semantic web where to use natural language processing will require that knowledge and terminology.
So, how can we, they, the government, anybody, help foster knowledge to decrease the existing divides?
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
