If you're poor or a minority, your kids are less likely to have time at the school computer and you are less likely to have Net access at home, where real skill-building with technology begins. Just 23 percent of households with annual incomes of less than $15,000 have home Internet access, compared with 90 percent of those with incomes of $75,000 or more, according to government data calculated by The Children's Partnership, a non profit.

- Maggie Jackson reports in the Boston Globe.


In Brasil, a model of digital inclusion for the poor is successfully being provided by public telecenters in urban and rural areas. The South Korean government, through its Ministry of Information and Communication, made South Korea one of the top ranking countries in Internet usage by providing broadband to apartment buildings and financing of home computers.

The United States, which ranks 12th globally in broadband usage, also lags behind in providing any comprehensive plan to include all of its citizens in the information society.

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