Cyber Technology with Socio-demographic Groups, Social And Political Institutions in Sri Lankan context.

1. Chapter 4 - Social Context
of Computing
IT 5105 – Professional Issues in IT
Upekha Vandebona
upe.vand@gmail.com
[Socio-demographic Groups, Social And
Political Institutions]
Ref : Tavani, Herman T., “Ethics and technology: controversies, questions, and strategies for ethical computing” , 4th Edition.

2. Instructional Objectives
 Interpret the social context of a particular information technology
implementation.
 Evaluate a particular implementation through the use of empirical data.
 Describe positive and negative ways in which information technology alters
the modes of interaction between people.
 Explain why computing and networking access is restricted in some
countries.
 Explain the concept of “digital divide”, identify some causes and discuss
possible solutions.
 Identify underlying gender, cultural and diversity related issues in
information technology.
 Identify how information technology changes and affects culture as a whole.
 Identify how the internet has changed the face of computing and how it has
affected society.

3. Social Categories Impacted By
Technology
Socio-
demographic
Groups
Affecting social/
economic class,
race, and gender
Social And
Political
Institutions
Such as education
and government
Social Sectors
Including the
workplace

5. Digital Divide
 Gap, or “perceived gap,” between those who
have and do not have access to “information
tools” and between those who have and do not
have the ability to use those tools.
 So, merely having access to cyber technology is
not sufficient; one must also possess the
knowledge and ability to use that technology.

6. Categories of Digital Divide
 Issues affecting the digital divide can be
organized into two broad categories:
A divide between
nations
Global Digital
Divide
The division between
information-rich and
information-poor nations
A divide with in
nations
The technological divides
within nations, on the
contrary, exist between rich
and poor persons, racial
majority and minority
groups, men and women,
and so forth

7. Globally Internet Usage - Statistics
 Global Internet usage has expanded significantly
(nearly eightfold) from 2000 to 2011.
 In March 2011, it was estimated that there were
slightly more than two billion Internet users.
 In 2000, it was estimated that 361 million people,
approximately 5.8% of the world’s population, were
online; the vast majority of those users lived in North
America and Europe.

8. Global Digital Divide - Statistics
 Internet penetration over 60% in 2005
 Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the
United Kingdom, United States
 As of 2011, the disparity between the percentage
of Internet users in developed and developing
countries continues to be significant.
 In India, the Internet penetration was 8.4%, while in
the United Kingdom it is 82%.

9. Reasons for Global Digital Divide
 One obstacle to eliminating the global digital
divide altogether is that developing countries
struggle with low literacy rates;
 many people in developing nations cannot read and
write in their native language, let alone in English.
 And, much of the material on the Internet is in English.
 This has influenced advocates for improved Internet
service for global users to lobby for the development of
Web applications that include more graphics and
images that can serve as universal symbols.
 Inequalities regarding access to cyber technology
are “tied closely to economic inequality.”

10. Digital Divide within Nation
 For Developed countries, gap is very small when
compared to the developing countries.
 Solution : Public Access Points
E.g in Sri Lanka : e-Nanasala (ඉ-නැණසල), විදාතා
මධ්‍යස්ථාන
Arguments : Merely providing community points
of access to the Internet would be similar to a
policy that simply placed telephones in public
locations rather than making telephone service
affordable for all the citizens.

11. Sri Lanka Internet Usage - Statistics

12. Sri Lanka Computer Literacy - Statistics
 http://www.statistics.gov.lk/SiteSearch.asp - Search for
keyword ‘computer’
 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_numb
er_of_Internet_users
 Sri Lanka World Rank 141 in 2013
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Inter
net_connection_speeds
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_numb
er_of_broadband_Internet_subscriptions
 http://www.news.lk/news/business/item/7557-sri-lanka-
s-mobile-internet-usage-grows-85-8-pct-in-2014-cb

13. Sri Lanka Computer Literacy - Statistics 2015 -1st Quart
 Based on age group of 5 – 69 for 25,000 households
 24.6% of households of the country have at least one desktop
computer or laptop computer and 67% of the households have
acquired their first computer during the last five years (2010 –
2014).
 Computer Literacy - Ability to use a computer to perform any
activity : 26.8%
 male (28.7%) is higher than the female (25.1 %)
 highest level of computer literacy is reported from Western Province (
38.3 %) while the lowest level is reported from Eastern Province (12.8% )
 Colombo district shows highest computer literacy of 47.1 % and
Mullaitivu district reports lowest level of 8.9 %. Above 30 % computer
literacy is reported for Gampaha, Kandy and Kalutara districts.
 Young youths (aged 15 – 19 years) reported the highest computer literacy
rate of 57.2 %. Usage of internet (27.6 %) and e‐ mail (21.2 %) is highest
in Colombo district
 among unemployed population, those who are in the age group of 20 ‐24
years reported computer literacy of 69.1 percent.

14. Computer owned households (percentage) by the
year of first acquisition of a computer -2015
Percentage of Desktop or
Laptop
computer owned households
by Sector: 2014 and
2015 (during 1st 6 months).

15. Percentage of Desktop or Laptop computer owned
households by province: 2014 and 2015 (during 1st 6
months)

16. Computer literacy rate by sector and province –
2015 (during 1st 6 months)
Computer literacy rate by district – 2015
(during 1st 6 months).

17. Computer literacy rate by Gender, Age, Level of
education, and Language literacy – 2015 (during 1st 6
months)
Computer literacy among computer aware
employed population (aged 15 – 69 years) by
Occupation –
2015 (during 1st 6 months).

18. Digital Divide - A Critical Issue?
 What are the other kinds of divisions regarding
unequal access that is an critical problem?
 Could those who have and do not have Mercedes-
Benz automobiles, can argue that there is a
“Mercedes-Benz divide”?

19. Digital Divide - A Critical Issue?
 How about divisions that exist between those who
do and those who do not have access to vital
resources such as food and healthcare?
 So, unequal access to cyber technology; Is it
closer to the Mercedes-Benz divide, or is it closer
to divisions involving access to food and
healthcare?

20. Digital Divide - A Critical Issue?
 People who are lacking access to cyber technology
are deprived of resources that are vital for their
well-being.
 Without access to cyber technology
1. Access to knowledge is significantly lessened or
prevented.
2. Ability to participate fully in the political decision-
making process and to receive important information
is greatly diminished.
3. Economic prospects are severely hindered.

21. 1. People who are deprived of access to cyber
technology are not able to benefit from the
increasing range of information available on the
Internet and thus are falling further behind in
the information era.
1

22. 2. Because of political barriers to participation in
the decision-making processes in developing
countries, people in remote areas without access
to the Internet may have no means at all of
participating in national debates or of receiving
information about important developmental
matters and policies that can significantly affect
them.
2

23. 3. Because so much economic growth is driven by
the information and communication sector,
people living in countries that are not part of
this sector are disadvantaged.
The “underclass” of information poor may
become further marginalized in societies where
basic computer skills are becoming essential for
economic success and personal advancement.
These can include “entry to good career and
educational opportunities,” as well as “full
access to social networks . . . and opportunities
for civic engagement.
3

24. Cyber Technology for Disabled
 Not only do equity-and-access issues involving cyber
technology affect poor people in developing nations
and people in low-income groups within developed
nations, they also affect many disabled people.
 So, some suggest that core equity-and-access issues
under-lying the digital divide apply to this group of
people as well.
 There has been much discussion about implementing
strategies and policies to make the Internet more
accessible to disabled persons.

25. Web Accessibility
 Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) and the inventor of the HTTP
protocol that underlies the Web, has stated:“The
power of the Web is in its universality. Access by
everyone regardless of disability is an essential
aspect.”
 The W3C was formed, in large part, to promote
standards that ensure universal Web access.

26. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
 It established a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI),
which has produced guidelines and protocols for
developing software applications that improve
access for disabled persons, ranging from
software used in speech synthesizers and screen
magnifiers to proposed software applications that
will benefit people with visual, hearing, physical,
cognitive, and neurological disabilities.

27. WAI for Disabled
 WAI representatives have worked with industry
groups and governmental organizations to
establish guidelines for the design of “user
agents,” which are intended to lower barriers to
Web accessibility for people with disabilities.
 These user agents include Web browsers and
other types of software that retrieve and render
Web content; the agents are designed to conform
and communicate with other technologies,
especially “assistive technologies” such as screen
readers (which perform a function similar to
Braille applications in offline contexts).

28. •https://www.w3.org/WAI/
•http://www.ada.gov/508/
•http://www.icta.lk/attachments/254_Government_web_standards_Draft_v2.0.pdf

29. Cyber Technology for Disabled
 Computers equipped with assistive technologies
and “adaptive devices” can be “equalizers” in the
era of information technology because they
enable people with disabilities to participate in
and compete for jobs that require computer
access.
 “Access to technology is not simply a privilege
but rather a human right.”

30. Cyber Technology for Disabled
 Measures taken for the disabled have had
positive outcomes for other groups, especially
poor people who are often forced to deal with
literacy problems and inadequate equipment.
 Voice-recognition technology designed to assist
disabled persons who are unable to use keyboards
will ultimately also benefit nondisabled persons
with low literacy skills.

31. Cyber Technology for Disabled
 So we see that larger groups of (non-disabled) people
have benefited and could continue to benefit from
some Web-based initiatives designed for disabled
people.
 Ordinary users will likely continue to benefit from the
computer design enhancements to user interfaces
that are initially intended to assist disabled people.
 Because improving access to cyber technology for the
disabled has potential benefits for society as a whole.

32. Household computer ownership (percentage) –
2015 (during 1st 6 months)
Cyber Technology and
Sri Lankan Usage Patterns
https://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-115049-news-detail-
making-farmers-tech-savvy.html

33. http://labs.time.com/s
tory/see-the-most-
googled-person-in-each-
country-in-2015/
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2
Fm%2F04v7k2
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Vij
ay&geo=LK&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT-5%3A30

34. 2015
2016 (15 days)
Past 3 months
http://googleasiapacific.blog
spot.com/2015/08/how-sri-
lanka-searched-during-
election.html
Sri Lankan
Search Behavior

35. http://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook/pages
/total/sri-lanka
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/LK
Sri Lankan Online
Preferences Global Preferences for Sri
Lankan Online Social Content

36. Racism and the Internet
 Direct Internet communication does not
typically reveal a user’s physical attributes.
 So why?
 Internet communication can replicate other
communication mediums
 Not take time to disseminate information
 Wide distributive/access power
 Archival and viewing power
 Race is a sensitive information. Internet can play a
rhetorical role with respect to race.

37. Racism and the Internet
 Misleading and deceptive content to attract
visitors.
 Cyberspace provides an opportunity and forum to
discover and confront racial issues, but on the
other hand, it can perpetuate, or perhaps even
enhance, aspects of racism.
 Issues : Free Speech Vs Racism, Racism Vs
Nationalism - Unable to define boundaries
 Cyber technology going to be the main cause of
the rapid spread of racism with the support of
blogs and social media.

38. Cyber Technology and Gender
 Gender imbalance to access and motivation to
IT/CS education in Sri Lanka?
 Gender imbalance in CS and IT graduates in Sri
Lanka?
 Gender imbalance in IT literacy? Their purpose of
using IT/Internet?
 numbers of women entering the computer
profession, as well as the career opportunities for
women who entered the profession?

39. http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/20/9179853/tech-diversity-scorecard-apple-google-microsoft-facebook-intel-
twitter-amazon
Gender diversity of the world's biggest tech companies
Equal Employment
Opportunity report -
A compliance survey
mandated by federal
statute and
regulations in USA.
The survey requires
company employment
data to be
categorized by
race/ethnicity,
gender and job
category.

40. http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/20/9179853/tech-diversity-scorecard-apple-google-microsoft-facebook-intel-
twitter-amazon
Gender diversity of the leadership running the world's biggest tech companies.

41. Women’s Access To High-technology Jobs
 Computer science is still typically regarded as a
“male profession,” both in industry and
academia.
 Women are underrepresented in computer-related
jobs.
 Women are more underrepresented in the managerial
ranks in the computing field because of the “glass
ceiling,”
 Women are earning less than men for doing the same
jobs

42. Cyber Technology and Democracy
1. Has the use of cyber technology so far enhanced
democracy and democratic ideals, or has it
threatened them?
2. What impact has cyber technology had so far on
the political-election process in democratic
nations?

43. 1. Has Cyber technology Enhanced or
Threatened Democracy?
 Cyber technology favors democracy and
democratic ideals.
 “Openness”(i.e., An open architecture),
 Empowerment,
 Choice,
 Access to information.

44. Favors Democracy
 Internet provides an open forum in which ideas
can generally be communicated freely and easily.
 Internet empowers certain groups by giving them
a “voice,” to be frequently heard in some matters
in the public sphere that they had not previously
had. It empowers individuals by giving them more
choices and thus greater freedom.
 Internet has provided greater access to
information at a lower cost.

45. Internet Censorship
 Countries have gone to great lengths to censor political speech
in cyberspace.
 Some countries have gone to great lengths to censor political
speech in cyberspace.
 China required Google to comply with strict rules for filtering
information.
 http://www.sundaytimes.lk/90767/every-country-should-govern-its-own-
internet-chinas-xi
 Saudi Arabia censoring political speech online.
 Sri Lanka
 https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2015/sri-lanka
 http://readme.lk/fault-governments-internet-censorship-world/
 https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/
 SL Government Requests - Data Requests: Facebook, alteration and Takedown
(Military Purpose): Wikipedia, Remove content: Google

46. Freedom on the Net 2015

47. Freedom on the Net 2015
47 ↑

48. Freedom on the Net 2015

49. Personalized Interaction
 Can select to view online content that fits best with
and reinforces your political ideology. This will make
overloaded view of the similar content.
 People who are not interested will view without an
intention, the same political ideology as in their
circle.
 People will interact in online forums and visit Web
sites that exclusively promote the political views that
they embrace.
 Be in contact with only those people who share their
ideological beliefs.

50. Personalized Interaction
 Those actions threatens democracy. Democracy
“requires citizens to see things from one
another’s point of view,” we are instead
increasingly “more enclosed in our own bubbles.”

51. 2. Cyber Technology Effect in Political Elections
 Using electronic devices and social media sites for
political fundraising and influencing voter
turnout.
 Using political blogs to spread information and
influence election outcomes.

52. Popular Cases: Obama Model (2008 and 2012)
 Obama's win means future elections must be fought online
(2008)
 http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/nov/07/barackob
ama-uselections2008
 Barack Obama and the Facebook Election
 http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/11/19/barack-
obama-and-the-facebook-election
 How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics
 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-
campaign-changed-politics/?_r=0
 “Like JFK was the first president who really understood
television, Obama is the first social media president.”
 http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-
media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/

53. Social Media Influence in Political Uprising
 Political parties in power in Western democracies
have successfully used the latest available cyber
technologies to maintain their power.
 On the other hand, however some countries, such
as Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Egypt, have used
electronic devices and social media to topple the
powerful political regimes in those nations.

54. Popular Cases: Arab Spring
 A political movement that began on 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
 When protestors there assembled and threatened to
bring down Hosni Mubarak and his government, the
Mubarak administration reacted immediately by shutting
down the country’s Internet services and mobile phone
resources.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_the_Arab_Spri
ng
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Arab
_Spring
 In this case, organized protestors were able to bring
down a government, largely because of their adept use
of electronic devices and social media to organize their
protests.

55. Political Blogs and the Democratic Process
 To what extent do political blogs reinforce
democratic values and ideals, and how can they
undermine them?
 Insofar as blogs function as instruments for
communicating and disseminating information
about important political issues, they would seem
to reinforce values that favor democracy.
 But the standards for ensuring accuracy of the
content posted in political blogs are not always
adequate.

56. Impact of Blogs That Can Have On Democracy
 Blog stories were read online by numerous
people, many of whom may have assume, content
it reports to be true merely because they were
published on the Internet.
 As hard copy newspaper subscriptions continue to
decline, and as more and more people get their
news online, we may have to worry about the
standards of accuracy that apply in the online
political news media, especially political blogs.
 Democracy depends on truthful information to
flourish and survive.

57. Controversial Issues on Democracy from Cyber
Technology
 We should be concerned about the lack of veracity in
some political blogs and the implications that the
mass dissemination of false information online may
have for the future of democracy.
 Controversies surrounding e-voting
 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444508504
577595280674870186
 Selling of votes online
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2737080/Is-
independence-worth-Scots-try-sell-referendum-votes-EBAY-
little-1-04.html