數字世界應屬於所有人 What we should know about the internet

In a world in which a growing proportion of the population spends a growing proportion of their lives online, politicians and Policymakers pay far too little attention to digital demographics.

在越來越多的人每天在網上花費越來越多時間的當今世界，政治人士和政策制定者對於數字人口結構的關注過少。

Governments and research organisations typically measure internet “access”. A 2015 Pew study, for instance, found that 16 per cent of all US adults do not use the internet, a number that included 42 per cent of over-65s but only 4 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds. The European Commission has mapped the EU in terms of how often residents in subregions across different EU countries access the internet. As of 2009, 30 per cent of EU citizens had never used the internet at all.

政府和研究機構一般會衡量互聯網“接入”。例如，皮尤(Pew) 2015年的一項研究發現，16%的美國成年人不上網，這其中包括42%的65歲以上人羣，但只有4%的18歲至29歲人羣。歐盟委員會(European Commission)根據不同成員國各個地區居民的上網次數繪製了歐盟的情況。截至2009年，30%的歐盟公民從未使用互聯網。

Access, however, is just the beginning. Being able to get online does not measure the quality of the experience or the ability to take advantage of it.

然而，互聯網接入只是開始。能夠上網並不能衡量上網體驗的質量，或者利用互聯網的能力。

What we really need to know is how fast and how reliably people are connecting to the internet — and what they are able to do once they are connected. Are they mobile users who have access to strong mobile phone networks, who also have a laptop or desktop to carry out more complicated tasks? Or are they mobile-only users with spotty service, or members of a family or even a village with one smartphone to be shared?

我們真正需要了解的是，人們接入互聯網的速度有多快、有多可靠以及一旦上網他們能夠做什麼。他們是否是可以接入強大手機網絡的移動用戶、還有筆記本電腦或臺式機來執行更復雜的任務？或者他們是隻有手機、上網服務不穩定的用戶，或者是共用一部智能手機的家庭甚至村子的一員？

In a study of technology and learning in low-income families, researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of 1,200 lower- and medium-income parents in the US with children aged between 6 and 13. They found that 94 per cent of the families surveyed are connected to the internet in some way. But 52 per cent said it is too slow; 20 per cent said their internet had been cut off in the past year due to lack of payment; 23 per cent of families below the median income had mobile internet only, and 21 per cent said that “too many people share the same phone for them to get the time on it they need”.

在一項針對低收入家庭的科技和學習情況的研究中，瓊甘茲庫尼中心(Joan Ganz Cooney Center)的研究人員對1200對子女在6歲至13歲的美國中低收入父母展開了調查。他們發現，94%的受訪家庭能夠以某種方式上網。但52%的家庭表示，接入速度太慢；20%表示，過去一年裏曾由於欠費而被斷網；23%處於收入中值以下的家庭只能通過手機上網，而21%的受訪者表示，“太多人共用一部手機，以至於無法獲得他們需要的上網時間。”

These differences affect their children’s ability to get their homework done and to keep up in school. But the effect goes far beyond children. Low- and moderate-income mobile-only families are 25 per cent less likely to use online banking or bill paying than their better connected peers and 14 per cent less likely to apply for a job online. Pew found that one in three job seekers has had trouble entering all the information needed for a job application or submitting the supporting documents required to complete an application.

這些差異影響了他們子女完成作業以及跟上學習進度的能力。但其影響遠遠超過孩子。與上網條件較好的家庭相比，只能通過手機上網的中低收入家庭使用網上銀行或網上付款的機率要低25%，在網上找工作的機率低出14%。皮尤發現，三分之一的求職者不能順利輸入職位申請所需的所有信息，或者不能順利提交完成申請所需的證明文件。

Bad tools make it hard to acquire good skills. Digital literacy requires far more than simply knowing how to get online. Do you know where to go and how to get there? Do you understand how to protect yourself from spammers?

糟糕的工具使他們很難獲得優秀技能。“數字掃盲”的涵義遠遠不只是知道如何上網。你是否知道去哪裏以及如何到達？你是否知道如何保護自己，不上垃圾郵件的當？

Policymakers have a tremendous opportunity if they can gather more fine-grained data about who is not online and why. The Cooney Center study, for instance, found that 44 per cent of immigrant Hispanic parents do not use a computer at work, school or home, even occasionally — compared with 4 per cent of US-born Hispanics. A digital literacy strategy could work with immigrant organisations both to provide access to computers and teach the necessary digital skills.

如果能夠收集更多有關誰不上網以及原因的更多精細信息的話，政策制定者將得到一個巨大機遇。例如，庫尼中心的研究發現，44%的西語裔移民父母在上班、上學或在家時不用電腦，甚至偶爾也不使用，而在美國出生的西語裔僅有4%不用電腦。“數字掃盲”戰略可能對移民組織特別有效，既可以提供上網的電腦，也可以教授必要的數字技能。

It is important to note, however, that being well-off does not always translate into being well connected. Many of the nearly 42 per cent of elderly US citizens who do not use the internet think it is irrelevant to their lives — when it can help enormously in understanding and addressing health problems, paying taxes and navigating government benefit programmes.

然而，值得指出的是：富有並不總是轉化爲充分利用上網條件。在近42%的不上網的美國老年人中，很多人認爲，互聯網與他們的生活毫不相干——而實際上，互聯網在瞭解和應對健康問題、繳稅以及利用政府福利計劃方面極爲有用。

Another Pew study found that even when controlling for all other factors, individuals living with chronic diseases and disabilities are significantly less likely to go online. Government and community efforts aimed at the elderly, the ill and the disabled should therefore be focused more on digital access and literacy.

皮尤的另一項研究發現，即便在控制其他所有因素後，患有慢性病和身體有殘疾的人士上網的可能性還是要低得多。因此，面向老年人、病人和殘疾人的政府和社區舉措應當在更大程度上關注數字獲取和數字掃盲。

This is not just about helping individual citizens. The EU’s digital strategy has concluded that if more citizens were digitally fluent, Europe could reduce electricity consumption, improve healthcare, better protect cultural heritage and streamline the delivery of government services.

這不僅關乎幫助個人。歐盟數字戰略的結論是，如果有更多公民在數字技能上得心應手，歐洲有望降低耗電量、改善醫護、更好地保護文化遺產，並使政府服務的提供更爲順暢。

If we thought of the digitally poor and uneducated as a distinct social category intersecting others, we would have a powerful new policy lever applicable to a range of social and economic problems.

如果我們把數字窮人和沒有受過教育的人羣視爲一個與其他人羣交集的不同的社會羣體，我們將擁有一件新的強大政策工具，可以用來解決很多社會和經濟問題。

Unlike physical terrain, which is often hard to conquer, the digital world ought to be available to everyone. While policies aimed at equality of digital opportunity cannot transform physical environments, they can transport individuals to a different place. Digital demographics would help us to identify and classify the population of that virtual world.

與往往難以克服的實體地形不同，數字世界應該屬於所有人。儘管旨在讓數字機會平等的政策無法轉變實體環境，但它們可以讓個人達到一個不同的境界。數字人口統計學將幫助我們識別和分類那個虛擬世界的人口。