International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

REMOVING E-BARRIERS

Ways to Facilitate the Growth of the Internet
By Bernd Holznagel, Stefaan Verhulst, Andreas Grünwald and Kathrin Hahne

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 5-5-2000

Abstract

The Internet is booming. It has long since become a global phenomenon, which even here in Germany is gaining increasing influence over the core areas of the life and work of every citizen. It changes the way in which we communicate with each other, the way we learn, the way we are trained and the way we work. In an era of electronic commerce, participation in eco-nomic activity is changing too. With e-government, political decision-making and democratic citizen participation are taking on new proportions. However, at the moment, not everyone is benefiting from the advantages of the Internet on an equal basis. The "mother of all networks" is currently a medium dominated - albeit to a decreasing extent - by young, well-trained and well-heeled professionals. The exclusion of many from cyberspace would be acceptable to an extent, if it were still the domain of scientists and brokers. However this situation is no longer acceptable when a steadily increasing number of services offered by the government or the economy are processed online. In order to utilise the emerging potential in the best possible ways and to prevent the estrangement of broad segments of our society from this development, the existing access barriers (e-barriers) must be broken down. Online media, for example, must be affordable and accessible in everyone's direct environment and fulfil particular standard minimum requirements of comfortable use. Averting a "digital divide", a division of society into one part that uses new digital technologies and another that does not or even disapproves of them, represents an important challenge to people in politics, economics and science.