The science business case described in the lecture was the publishing of academic journals and other materials which end up being too expensive for wide audience. As not everyone will be able to reach the materials, it has and effect on the digital divide.
I was in search of additional examples and read my course mates blogs and I must agree with the examples of medical patenting, academic and other publishing by Jakob, Norbert and Maibritt. The medical sphere might be not exactly digital divide case, but the controversy in the industry is great indeed.
What I could point out in addition is the publishing and availability of encyclopedias. I came to it while reading Benkler's chapter on The Freedom of Culture from the Wealth of Networks. According to Benkler there are six commercial encyclopedias online from which one is available for no fee - the Columbia Encyclopedia.
To take into account the fact that in academic writing Wikipedia is not a valid source to add to references, the students need the access to the academic encyclopedias. And if those are the best source of information to any citizens, having no free access therefore could be taken as a reason for increasing digital divide.
But I must say that as we do have Wikipedia, in my opinion, there will not be a bigger digital divide in that reason only. Wikipedia can fill the gap and be even more diverse, thorough and up-do-date than the commercial encyclopedias developed by selected authors.
I was in search of additional examples and read my course mates blogs and I must agree with the examples of medical patenting, academic and other publishing by Jakob, Norbert and Maibritt. The medical sphere might be not exactly digital divide case, but the controversy in the industry is great indeed.
What I could point out in addition is the publishing and availability of encyclopedias. I came to it while reading Benkler's chapter on The Freedom of Culture from the Wealth of Networks. According to Benkler there are six commercial encyclopedias online from which one is available for no fee - the Columbia Encyclopedia.
To take into account the fact that in academic writing Wikipedia is not a valid source to add to references, the students need the access to the academic encyclopedias. And if those are the best source of information to any citizens, having no free access therefore could be taken as a reason for increasing digital divide.
But I must say that as we do have Wikipedia, in my opinion, there will not be a bigger digital divide in that reason only. Wikipedia can fill the gap and be even more diverse, thorough and up-do-date than the commercial encyclopedias developed by selected authors.
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