U.S. Statistics

       Unlike Poland, United States is the world's third largest nation. Its population is roughly 240 million people and it's area is 5.98 million square miles. It's huge! America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is $14.58 Trillion.
        As you can see in the chart below, unlike Poland, America's population has changed over the past 10 years; it has increased from 281.4 million to 310.2 million people.  It's number of internet users has also increased, almost doubled, from 124 million users in 2000 to 240 million in 2010.

       Unfortunately I was unable to find such a detailed study with charts and explanations as I did for Poland but I did find some similar statistics.

• 96% of working Americans use new communications technologies as part of their daily life

• 62% of working Americans use the Internet as an integral part of their jobs

• Between 1998 and 2008, the number of domestic IT jobs grew by 26 percent, four times faster than U.S. employment as a whole. By 2018, IT employment is expected to grow by another 22 percent.

• Despite the growing importance of the Internet in American life, 28% of Americans do not use the Internet at all.

• Nearly one-third of U.S. households (32 %) lack broadband service. 

• In 2009, 94% of American  households in urban areas were equipped with a personal computer and internet connection.

• In 2009, roughly 50% of American households in rural areas were equipped with a personal computer and about half of those had internet connection.

By looking at this chart below you can see that the internet use between rural and urban areas was fairly even, as expected the urban had a higher percentage but the difference wasn't too big. With that information from the chart from year 2005 compared to the two bullet points above, you can see that urban internet development must have skyrocketed because in 2009 94% of households had computers and internet. Whereas the rural development stayed pretty much untouched, although I'm sure the internet use percentage also has somewhat increased .

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Conclusion

       And this brings us to the conclusion. I hope that after viewing this presentation you are more familiar with both Poland's and America's technological background and growth. In particular, I hope you learned some important statistics about both countries internet users and the geographical differences. It was also my intention to to introduce you to some of the general ICT factors and barriers as well as various ways and strategies that are used to diminish digital divide and increase digital literacy skills.
       As for me, I continue to live in Ohio and experience America's technological growth and experiences. I walk around with an iPhone in my pocket which constantly keeps me updated on whats happening around me. I also have access to a computer connected to the internet basically at a turn of a shoulder. I keep in touch with my family that's back in Poland through various social media and I go on vacations there with my family every other year. On those trips I continue to notice change and growth. (In fact my grandma that lives on a farm recently purchased a computer and asked me to teach hear how to use it when I visit there next time.)
       I hope you enjoyed this presentation and took a lot of valuable information from it. I can be contacted here, and all of the sources where I found the content and statistics can be found here.

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Mobile & Internet Market

       An important thing to note is that Poland's mobile and internet market is very different than here in the United States. Poland has over 20 different mobile carriers whereas America only has 5. It also has over 350 licensed Internet Service Providers with the top 20 ISPs operating nationally while America only has 130 total ISPs with 5 that operate nationwide. So you can infer that there is a huge monopoly here in the United States while in Poland the market competition is fierce. European Union's grants played a big part in increasing number of providers. The more providers you have the lower the service prices become and more people decide to sign up for the service. This is why the number of Poland's internet users skyrocketed over the bast 10 years from 9.7% to 63%. 
       Let's talk about the mobile carriers a little bit more. Poland's (and Europe's) cellphone market was always bigger and advanced than America's. This is because Europe invented the GSM platform and was a home to many cell phone makers: such as Nokia, Siemens, LG, Phillips and many more. This is also why the prices were lower than in America and why more people had cellphones. In fact I remember having my first cellphone in the first grade while in America even today this seems too early and many parents choose not to give cellphones to their children til later ages.
        Many people argue but can't seem do decide whether having a smartphone today with internet access counts towards closing down the digital divide. Some say that it does because it lets people stay connected with the world: talk, text, browse the mobile internet. Some however say that it doesn't count because the internet on the cellphone is very scaled down compared to the internet on the computer and is usually capped after 2GB. My take on this is that mobile internet may be scaled down and limited but it still is internet and people can stay connected with the world. Also I think that because it is cheaper in Poland, more people subscribe to it rather than an ordinary ISP which keeps you confined at home. 

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European Union

       A lot of the previously talked about problems and challenges that Poland faced were supposed to disappear when Poland decided to join the European Union in 2003. Many of them have in fact been corrected and disappeared however many still persist to this day. Joining the European union was supposed to improve Poland's economy, quality of citizens' lives and in general modernize the country. That's exactly what it did however the initial expectations were set too high and now looking back at them most have not been met.
       Initially everyone was happy because by joining EU Poland received a lot of additional funding in a form of grants. Grants were given to a wide variety of institutions and individuals for various projects. Grants were used for the improvements and developments of transportation/road systems, schools and education, foundation of small businesses, expansion of large corporations and most importantly in the context of this project: diminishing digital divide by expanding fiber lines so more people had the access to the internet.
       European Union also set a lot of requirements and deadlines that had to be met. For example, it required that Poland will have the same number of homes connected to the internet as its mean, 70%, by 2010. That did not happen, by 2010 Poland only had 60% of homes connected, which is not a huge difference compared to its 9.7% in 2000.  By having these requirements in place and the means of achieving them (funding) various companies were furious to get started and expand. That was a good thing, it acted as a motivation. However they were so furious and excited to get it done that they didn't think of a good strategy. They came up with short term solutions instead which wasted their money quicker than anticipated which slowed down the development. Because of that insufficient planning and short term solutions those requirements were usually not met, and this is not only in IT, almost in all projects throughout the country. So what does that mean? Not much really. The country is still evolving and growing however at a slower pace because it's funding has to come from somewhere else.
       In conclusion, European Union is a beautiful and great thing. Although it had too high of expectations for Poland, it set it in the right track boosting it's economy and greatly diminished it's problem with digital divide.

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General ICT Factors And Barriers

       There are many various factors that contribute the the ICT digital skills and digital divide. A lot of them can be related and noticed or experienced in Poland.
       First in order to work on diminishing the digital divide and increasing the digital skills you need funding, something that Poland did not have. With funding you can educate people and give them valuable knowledge on how to utilize the technologies, which unfortunately Poland lacked.  Without the previous two Poland obviously had a lack of understanding of business processes and skilled employees. Without the skilled employees the companies didn't have well structured standard operating procedures or a long-term successful strategy. Another two barriers to ICT implementation are lack of suitable software and an information system plan. As you can see these factors and barriers are like a chain reaction; If you don't have the fundamental one or the previous one you probably are not going to have the following others.
       Knowledge Economy Index(KEI) refers to a popular tool used to asses the progress of a knowledge and technology based economy in various countries. It is an assesment based on 14 variables, describing four pillars of the knowledge economy. Those four pillars are

• economic incentive and instutional regime
• innovation system
• education and human resources
• ICT

The chart below shows the huge difference between Poland and America. As you can see America has the highest index while Poland has the lowest out of the countries that were studied and indexed. This index is proving again that USA is much more technologically educated and economically well off than Poland.

       To put the previously mentioned factors and barriers into a chart, I think this chart is a good fit. It is mainly referring to the network aspect however it shows 3 main factors and breaks them down even further.

       In conclusion, based on the various factors and indexes the USA is at the most advanced stage in the information revolution and is recognized as the most knowledge drive economy. In order to reduce the digital divide, increase the digital literacy skills and provide long term success it is crucial that the governments continue to provide training, education and creation of organizational knowledge.

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Personal Anecdote

       Now that you know some of the history and statistics of both countries let me briefly tell you what I saw as I grew up and moved my life from Poland to America.
       When I was still young and living in Poland not many people had computers or internet connections. They were moderately used in work places and public institutions, it really was a privilege to have access to the computer. I didn't see many computers because of two reasons: firstly people didn't have the need to own or use one, they were resistant to change and preferred good old method of pen and paper. Secondly, computers and internet connections were very expensive and because of that it was only somewhat common to see computers in workplaces and public institutions, institutions that wanted to take a big leap and be ahead of the time. They thought that computers will make everything more productive and easier to accomplish. I think that if you look at today, that's exactly what happened and probably the intention of computers was in the long run.
       When I came to the states everything was different. I saw computers almost everywhere! At work, at the libraries, schools, homes, doctor offices... everywhere. I was surrounded by them. Now let me remind you that this is a continuation of my life and my story; I was not in the U.S. the late 1990's so I do not know what I would have seen or how the world of technology evolved. I do know one thing for certain: it was definitely ahead of Poland's because of the native corporations and lower prices.  So anyway, once here in the states my family instantly bought a new computer and subscribed to a broadband service. I saw that the internet was much more developed and polished than in Poland, you could use online stores and have products shipped to you home. That was amazing in my opinion, you didn't even have to get up from your chair to have something delivered to your doorstep, I have never experienced something like this before because such online retailers did not exist in Poland yet. People also used online chat clients to communicate: AIM, Skype, MySpace and now Facebook.
       In general the technology was developed much more and cheaper than in Poland and people were not afraid of adapting to it, in fact,  they were willing to use it to ease their life.

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U.S. History

       America has a very different history than Poland. Ever since the day when the European colonists settled here, America has been number one in almost everything. It is the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nation. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy. America has always had wold's largest and most powerful military, in fact it accounts for 41% of global military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.
        The United States are the land of the free. That is why most of the creations and innovations originate from here. People have the freedom and the will to be the best at what they do and it clearly shows. Because of capitalism some of the most innovative companies originated and reside here. The internet was also invented here in the states during the 1950's and 60's. Probably the most important the most world changing innovation. Think about it, everything revolves around the internet today, all of the electronics, the government, commerce... Anything, name it and I'm certain you can relate it to the internet in one way or the other.
       This country is the home to most technological and electronic companies, companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Apple, HP, Sony. Because of that we have a lot of competition and great products. Because of the competition and the native country, the prices for the electronics are the lowest around the world. Also another important benefit from the companies being from America is that everything (software wise mainly) is in English and people can easily use it. Where as in order to deliver the product to different countries everything has to be translated and exported, all equating in a higher face value of the product oversees.
       People here grow up around technology and innovations; that is why this is a leading country in so many things, including the lowest digital divide and highest digital literacy.

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Poland's Statistics

       Poland is a fairly small nation with a population of about 38 million people and area of 195 thousand square miles. Poland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is $12,575 which is nothing compared to America's $14.58 Trillion.
       As you can see in the chart below, country's population hasn't changed much in the past 10 years, however the number of internet users has! In the year of 2000 only 3.7 million people, roughly 9.7% of county's population used internet. Yet in 2010 about 22.5 million internet users existed, that's roughly 60% of country's population. That's a huge growth and improvement, something that a country like Poland should pride themselves in!

       Now onto digital literacy, the chart below shows the percentage of computer users that can do various tasks. The data is from the year of 2005 so by today it is bound to increase drastically but I was unable to find a more recent study.

      
       From this chart we can infer that over half of people aged 16-74 in Poland can operate a computer with a mouse. 40% of all persons can copy and move files and 34% can use copy or cut and paste tools. 27% of Poles know how to send e-mails with attachments and 20% can use a computer spreadsheet program. Only 16% people can create web pages or multimedia presentations. The lowest proportion was reported for writing computer program with specialized programming language - 5%.
       In today's world, the ability to use the Internet is definitely one of the most important elements of digital competences and a necessary skill to successfully function in Information Society.The chart above shows that only about 1 in 3 people regularly use the Internet. It seems that this ability strongly correlates with age and level of education.
 
       As I stated before I was unable to find more recent data but I was able to find data from 2004 and 2005, as well as this chart that shows the change of computer training from the year of 04 to 05.
31% of Poles took part in various computer trainings in 2005. The percentage was considerably higher than in 2004 when 21% people participated in this kind of courses

       Household location is another important factor for both computer equipment and Internet access.
In 2005 44,5% of Polish households in urban areas were equipped with a personal computer, while in rural areas 30% of households were equipped with a PC . The average for Poland was 40%.

 

      In 2005 30% of households had Internet access in Poland. The number was considerably higher in urban - 36% than in the rural areas - 19%

       As I stated before the data is from 2005 so by today the gap and difference between the percentages would be smaller but still noticeable.

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Poland's History

       Poland has a very rough history. From the mid 17th century it has been in a middle of many devastating wars which led to the deterioration of it's system of government. It has never been a rich or strong country and that's why it at one point disappeared from the map, Russia conquered it and it became a part of the Russian Empire. Later through series of invasions and partitions it became Prussia and later claimed it's own independence in the early 1800's. In the early to mid 1900's, during World War II, Poland was the home of the many Nazi Jewish concentration camps. After WWII Poland's geographic location was shifted to the west and because of that Poland largely lost its traditional multi-ethnic character and the communist system was imposed. By the late 1980s Solidarity, a Polish reform movement, became crucial in causing a peaceful transition from a communist state to the capitalist system and parliamentary democracy. This process resulted in the creation of the modern Polish state.
        In the late 1980's and 1990's Poland had a mainly agriculture driven economy. The country had a lot of history but no where near economical success. Although many things have changed in the past 30 years it is still felt today. To this day the country is divided into 4 sectors: A,B,C and D. Sector A is the country's agricultural region with many farms. B is a small factory region with few European companies' factories. C is the suburban region where 70% of the population lives. And D is the country's business district where many of the corporations reside. Over the past years with the introduction of technology sectors C and D greatly changed and expended for the better.Technology has not effected A and B so much however, but they still continue to produce goods.
       There are many reasons why the technological growth is so slow and digital divide continues to exist. I think there are two main reasons that stand out the most. Firstly, because the agricultural sector A is so big and at one point everyone would have been considered to be a part of it, the people in that sector are resistant and hesitant to change. They don't want change, they are afraid of it and like how things used to be back in the day. Second big reason are the prices. 99% of all of the technologies and electronics come from the United States and have to be imported and sold with the American price tags. 1 Dollar is roughly equal to 3 zlotys. So everything that is purchased in Poland costs 3 times as much and usually has a big mark up in the price itself. The big difference in the price has slightly diminished over the years but it is still existent and noticeable today.

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Introduction

Hello everyone!
       My name is Mariusz (Mario) and my family is originally from Warsaw, Poland. I was born and raised there for ten years until my parents decided to move to the United States. We moved to the states when I was 10 years old, back in the year of 2003. Ever since I can remember I was very interested in computers, they drew my attention like nothing else. I loved to play with and on them, I was curious as to how they worked and what made them work. I enjoyed reading technology magazines and articles and learning about all of the new equipment and software that came out. Computers weren't the only thing that caught my attention, anything that had buttons and responded to user input had my hands all over it, I was pretty tech savvy and was interested in how everything worked. My dad was an electrician back in the day so I guess some of the interests must have been passed down through genes.
        I remember my dad putting money aside and saving it for his fist computer because it was so expensive back in the late nineteen-nineties. I will never forget the day when he finally bought it and brought it home from the store. I was told to stay away from it when parents weren't home and to never touch it. I broke those rules fairly quickly. After watching my dad use it for the first couple of days or weeks I was truly amazed. After I learned how to operate the operating system, Windows 95, I asked my dad to open it and show me the insides. He did, and as soon as he popped the side off my face dropped. It was beautiful inside there. Later, he explained to me what each part was and what it did.
       That computer lasted us for a very long time, even though we didn't use it at the end we kept it up until we decided to move. When we got it we were the first to have a computer on the block. I remember having family and friends come over and watch movies or play on it. That was all before internet too. Internet was very rare back then, not only was the technology not fully developed but it was very expensive. No one had it at home and only few companies had connections. Fast forward to 2001. My dad received a free dial-up connection from work so he decided to buy a modem so we could use it at home. To this day I remember the dialing tone that thing made each time you dialed the number to connect; good memories that I will never forget. Keep in mind that dial-up is only 56K so it was horrendously slow compared to today's broadband standards. Nonetheless, I was the cool kid and one of the first people who had this awesome thing called internet at home.
       So you might be wondering how does all of this fit into this project and my story. Well as you can see the technology was very slow to mature and because of it's price it was slow to reach users in Poland. When we moved to the states it was like we moved to a whole different universe in my eyes. I remember seeing computers everywhere, at my parents work, doctor offices and in most homes. They weren't just computers, they had a decently fast network connection too. It was like I was a kid in the candy store surrounded by all of the technology.
       As I was thinking about what I could do for this digital story about, I thought this was a great topic. I would reflect on my previous experiences, provide you with Poland's history and statistics and then compare them to the ones of America's. I will also talk about general ICT factors and barriers that stand behind this digital and literacy divides that I saw and experienced, as well as solutions to narrowing them.

I invite you to experience my digital story. Enjoy!


-Mario

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