Government, academic and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos discussed how to bridge the mammoth ‘Digital Divide’ between western society and developing countries of the third world. The digital revolution has established broadband Internet in well over 60% of industrialized countries, but below 1% in the rest of the developing world.
In Egypt, Brazil, South Africa, India and China, the digital transformations are underway. These high-speed Internet links and computers into classrooms and medical clinics have already been installed in several small communities. A few are in some of the most remote inhabited places on Earth. Healthcare workers can now remotely diagnose patients too, access training programs, and receive advice from specialists hundreds of miles away over video links using an advancement called Telemedicine. Children in schools also now have access to the vast knowledge resources on the web.
