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The knowledge divide is the gap in the standards of living between those who can find, create, manage, process, and disseminate information or knowledge, and those who are impaired in this process. According to a 2005 UNESCO World Report, the rise in the 21st century of a global information society has resulted in the emergence of knowledge as a valuable resource, increasingly determining who has access to power and profit. The rapid dissemination of information on a potentially global scale as a result of new information media and the globally uneven ability to assimilate knowledge and information has resulted in potentially expanding gaps in knowledge between individuals and nations.

Digital divide[ edit source]
The term digital divide was coined in the late 20th century to refer to the gap between those who had access to those who had access to the internet and those who did not, explaining the gap between people and societies who have the ability to participate in sharing and disseminating information in the digital age and those who do not. Today, the digital divide primarily refers to the gap in the nature of internet use rather than a gap in access to it.

Technology has expanded knowledge but it has not succeeded in democratizing it. In other words, technology has helped bridge the digital divide but has not helped in bridging the knowledge gap. Providing access to computers and other technologies is not enough to bridge the digital divide, rather importance must be out on developing digital literacy to bridge the gap. Addressing the digital divide will not be enough to close the knowledge divide. Despite worldwide use of the internet, users are disproportionately concentrated in more Developed countries such as the United States, South Korea, and Japan. Democratizing knowledge requires increased access to digital technology and equipping people to make effective use out of them.

Criticism[ edit source]
In the book Digital Dead End, Virginia Eubanks criticizes the way that the digital divide is generally thought of as a division between haves and have-nots, where the solution is distribution. This over-simplistic depiction obscures the fact that often social and structural inequality is at the root of the divide. According to a study done by Eubanks with women of the YWCA, the women of the community "insisted that have-nots possess many different kinds of crucial information and skills." In other words, it is not simply knowledge of the technology itself that is the issue but the structural system based on perpetuating the status quo in which the haves "hoard" knowledge.

In gender, race, ethnicity and social class[ edit source]
First, it was noticed that a great difference exists between the North and the South[where?] (rich countries vs. poor countries). The development of knowledge depends on spreading Internet and computer technology and also on the development of education in these countries. If a country has attained a higher literacy level then this will result in a higher level of knowledge. Indeed, UNESCO's report details many social issues in knowledge divide related to globalization. There was noticed a knowledge divide with respect to


 * Gender: Socio-cultural inequalities between men and women, such as unequal access to education and technology, create the conditions for unequal access to knowledge. This can cause significant knowledge gaps both within and between nations, the latter resulting from individual nations' underutilization of their full knowledge workforce. A gap in the use of the internet has been discovered as well. Women are more likely to use the internet for communication, while men are more likely to use it for commerce, information, and entertainment.
 * Race: Studies have shown that although gaps in access to IT has diminished over the decades, there is still a large gap in IT use between African Americans and other racial groups.
 * Ethnicity
 * Social class