The IT Revolution, however, did not stop short in the United States but rapidly advanced to all industrialized countries and also diffused to the developing world. The INTERNET began to expand into a worldwide phenomenon. Due to this spread it was no longer a structural social problem existing within any one country but grew to being a differential that divided one country from another. It came to be recognized as a watershed inherent in the world's structure. The Digital Divide was already raised as an issue related to worldwide regional development and highlighted in the World Development Report 1998/1999 of the World Bank and the Human Development Report 1999 of the United Nations Development Plan (UNDP). It was also considered as a new form in which the north-south problem appeared. The issue of the Digital Divide among nations was taken up in the debates at the Kyushu - Okinawa Summit in the summer of 2000 and attracted attention as a new discriminatory problem on a global scale.

The industrialized countries, especially the United States, are speeding up the pace of their development by using IT whereas the developing countries in Asia and Africa are unable to make use of IT for a variety of reasons, including the lack of funding and human resources and the inadequacy of their poorly developed infrastructure. They are thus "left behind" once more, only is a different form and the existing gaps between countries are widened as a result.

As we have seen, the process in which the Digital Divide emerged as a structural social problem within individual nations and developed to an international problem that widened the gaps between countries was in response to the spread of the IT Revolution since the mid-1990s and the diffusion of the Internet.

Let us define the IT revolution as a social revolution that has occurred against the backdrop of the market economy system following the collapse of the Cold War structure and the worldwide globalization trend and that has been brought about through the use of the "autonomously diffused" computer network system, in other words, the use of a technical system centering around the Internet, on the principle that the individual, company, organization or nation must accept individual responsibility and autonomy, in an attempt to create an environment (system, material infrastructure, priority structure, value-set, etc.) providing a more convenient and comfortable personal lifestyle and permitting greater efficiency in the conduct of economic activities and administrative operations. Once we have accepted this definition, it follows that those who do not catch up with the tide of the IT revolution will not benefit from the "digital opportunities" as the merits arising from this. This, in turn, leads to new differentials with the result that the existing gaps will be widened and consolidated still further. This is what we mean by Digital Divide in this context. We must not forget that the Digital Divide and the Digital Opportunities are the front and reverse sides of the same coin.

Put another way we can say, that amidst the spread of the IT Revolution, a clear dividing line can be drawn between individuals or groups capable of making use of IT to collect a large volume of information and individuals and groups that do not have this capability. This distinction generates various differentials or widens and reinforces the many differentials that already exist.

The word "group" we have used here should be understood to mean any "social group" (community), company or organization, regional (urban or local) community, or nation. The various differentials and the existing gaps we have referred to are mainly "economic differences" and relative advantages and disadvantages in terms of differentials in education and culture and military and security gaps. Naturally, the Digital Divide is also determined by the way in which the IT Revolution progresses among the individuals and groups and by the various differences that do already exist.

When we refer to the "way in which the IT Revolution progresses" the problem we come up against is the problem of information literacy. This implies the problem as to whether individuals or groups have the ability to use networks, that is, to make effective use of the Internet and the computer. Information literacy is the basic ability to "read and write" in the IT world, to have mastered the ABC of information technology. The spread of the IT Revolution also comes shoulder to shoulder with the problem of how well the network infrastructure has been developed in both quantitative and qualitative terms.

The "quantitative" level of the network infrastructure can be defined, in an extreme manner of speaking, the carrying or transmission capacity of the Internet and the level of its diffusion. The quantitative aspects of the network infrastructure are determined by factors such as whether communications takes place merely on a text basis or whether it also uses audio and visual means, whether it has a broad-band capability with smooth animation image transmission and to what extent each of these capabilities are available. The "qualitative level" of the network infrastructure refers primarily to the contents of the information flowing through the infrastructure and its mode. The quantity and quality the network infrastructure can be seen as a major factor determining the quantitative and qualitative dimension of the differentials.

2. The Digital Divide at the Individual Level

The digital divide appears on the individual level as an economic differential, a difference in the way individuals derive benefits from the service. The individual as the user and stakeholder of the IT services derives benefits from the use of IT, and the extent to which he or she can make use of the services and potentialities associated with the IT Revolution determines the level of economic advantage and benefit (service) he or she can enjoy from IT. The greater the level of the individual's information literacy is, the greater will thus be the economic benefit he or she can derive from the IT services.

Thus, for example, the Internet offers a diverse range of services involving information exchange relating, among other things, to auctions, share trading and community involvement activities. If the individual is able to make effective use of these services he or she will also enjoy the service benefits in terms of his or her ability to come into the possession of the various economic advantages of the service offering which may include savings on consumer purchases or the realization of employment opportunities. In recent years, IT literacy has in many cases become a part of the conditions of employment and is reflected in the salary. Many companies advertise job vacancies on the Internet and require the use of e-mail for applications and communication. There are also companies offering services at reduced rates for reservations and purchases made on the Internet. People without a personal computer and information terminal or people without the ability to use these devices are therefore at a clear disadvantage in that they cannot avail themselves of these economic benefits. This differential in the extent to which individuals can enjoy the benefits of government services will widen still further once the electronic government and electronic local government infrastructure has been completed.

The differential also shows in the education and cultural domain. Let us supposed, for example, that children in the United States with a personal computer and Internet access in their homes have to do their homework. Having Internet access gives them the advantage that they can prepare their reports by using these IT facilities to search for the information they need and make the necessary investigations in a very simple manner. The availability of a PC and the Internet is therefore an important factor that has a great impact on the educational success and results of school children as opposed to children who do not have these facilities.

In terms of security, it is true that those with a high level of information technology are exposed to a high risk of having their privacy intruded upon and of becoming victims of network crimes on a scale not experienced before. Admittedly, these risks would not be encountered without the use of the Internet. Yet, there is a way of minimizing this risk: The individual can best protect himself or herself by honing and enhancing his or her information literacy through the continued use the network so as to avoid the danger of ever suffering damage.

3. The Digital Divide at the Level of Social Groups (Community Level)

Each nation or region comprises a variety of groups or communities (in terms of race, ethnic groups, age, sex, handicapped, or same university or school). It does appear that the extent of information technology availability also makes a big difference in that it is apt to widen the differentials that do exist.

In the United States, for example, there are communities based on racial identities, and the extent to which these different communities have access to information reportedly*3 tends to make a considerable difference in terms of the economic and educational differentials among them, with the gap between those with and those without access to information widening.