Extending Australia's digital divide policy : an examination of the value of social inclusion and social capital policy frameworks

When digital divide policies were first developed, they were established under the rubric of much larger information society and knowledge economy policy visions, which set out that, as tradable commodities, 'information' and 'knowledge' were increasingly the drivers of economic growth (ed. Webster 2002). While a whole host of social, cultural and economic benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) access were often imagined within early digital divide policies, without high levels of internet dispersion and with limited access quality, these benefits tended to be futuristic or based on the experiences of internet 'early adopters': an elite minority. Following a decade of internet dispersion, user rates are now close to or exceed 75 per cent in many countries, including Australia (ABS 2007a). This puts policy makers in a much better position to examine the benefits internet users are actually enjoying and how policy can interact with and better capitalise on these benefits.