Class work of September 23

1. 
   
1. Both articles talk about one of the most pressing issues in the planet. The first article explains how hard it is to provide internet access to areas, such as the village of Knysna, because first, the area is so remote; it is, literally, one of the furthermost populated areas in the world; second it is too impoverished to provide internet access. The article specifies that in order to do so, they need equipment, similar to those that transmit cell phone signals, such as repeaters and immense parabolic antennae. Currently, the government is setting up all of these systems and have allowed schools, such as the Smuttsville Primary, to have internet connections and as well as public libraries so that evry person in the community has free internet connection.
   
2. The second article explains a problem present in the United Kingdom. It talks about that the UK has very specialized technology to produce faster internet connection, but the equipment to produce it is very expensive. It is possible to have this technology in urban areas because a large amount of people have and use internet so the prices of the connections remain stable. In rural areas, in the other hand, not so many people use nor want to use internet, and so using this technology for the rural regions is very expensive and would make the prices of internet very high. So now, internet prices in the rural areas are extremely high or there is no internet at all. Governments of the United Kingdom are doing what they can to try to solve the problem, and in fact, for instance, the Scottish government in partnership with the telecommunication company Thus created an initiative known as Pathfinder to allow schools and local offices to have super fast and cheap/free internet connections.
2. People who do not have internet in those neighborhoods may face many difficulties eventually. Quoting an excerpt from the first article: "They don't need to walk 1.5 km to the town in order to go on and do research work" and "It has actually opened doors to information, because we live in this global village in a sense. Knysna's become a global village because it doesn't matter where you live, you can actually have access to information. Whether you come from the rich or you come from the poor community, the facilities are the same." Internet, like the article stated opened millions of doors for people. Now in this village, children who need to do homework which requires research do not need to walk one and a half kilometers and spend maybe hours investigating to get this information. When they say it doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor, everyone has access to the same information. This is an example of how internet "flattened" our world. People who do not have access to internet will fall behind and will only be limited to do several activities. When certain jobs go obsolete and some are replaced with the internet, people who do not have experience in the topic will be unemployed and unable to do many things because they will not have the necessary discipline and experience to do so.
3. Venezuela has many remote and rural areas without internet, out of the approximate 27 million people, only about 6 million use and know about the internet. Moreover, very few villages outside main cities do not even know the term internet, these villages are generally located in states such as Bolivar, Amazonas, Merida, Delta Amacuro, Nueva Estparta, etc. Right now, CONATEL, which is a government entity is trying to eliminate this so called internet divide in the rural areas. As an example, we will use village Nevados, in Merida. This village is located nearly 3000 meters above seas level and just recently (2003), radio technology was brought to the village. CONATEL has the goal of setting up 10 PC with internet access, three phone lines, one fax, one scanner and one photocopier, because right now, they only have one public phone and to get a copy, they had to go to the nearest town with donkeys , something that would take them about 4 hours. The project is thought to be finished by January of 2009. This internet access points will benefit the villagers and affect their lives because they will now be communicated with the world, even though they are not close at all.