An Article about access...kinda
In light of our discussion on access to technology and such, I thought I'd post this article I just read on Yahoo News. Of course since it's a piece from pop culture news it doesn't layout any critique or deep thoughts about what access means or doesn't mean. But I thought it interesting to find the topic showing itself.
The article discusses the current state of public libraries across the nation which are low on funding for technologies like computers with Internet access. Many can't afford new tech OR the electricity to run it on. That's a complication to the access issue we haven't raised in class.
If I recall correctly, Beth Kolko (I think?) spoke last year at the IDIS lectures about tech access worldwide. She pointed to the lack of reliable electricity service as well as government censorship of Internet content as reasons that people in some parts of the world do not use the Internet like we do here in the US. Her point was that new media/digital tech/electric tech as information sharing devices can come in many forms. People outside of the US often use their phones w/ text features as a way to organize or to share information....but I digress...
What the Yahoo article reminded me of is that plenty of folks here don't have reliable access even when they can get TO the machines. I often forget that new media doesn't exist solely in the world of the Internet, gaming systems, or The Computer (or does it?).
The article also called to mind the changes in how we as a society view the importance of information or rather, what we value as information and as modes of transmitting that info (i think this ties into our discussion of memory also). Books were the most important things in libraries once. And libraries were at one time about collecting "valuable" texts. Libraries were the store houses of our knowledge. They've changed to offer availability to other texts (including audio & visual) and now offer Internet access. Do public libraries offer access to software like web design programs or Word? Just wondering what that might mean...