Beijing’s Digital Homelands
p2pnet.net News:- Beijing, China’s capital city, says it’s going to create ‘digital homelands’ so low income and "laid-off citizens" can go online to spread Internet use "beyond young groups and IT professionals".
"With the aim of providing the convenience brought by modern technologies to more common residents, the Beijing Municipal Office of Information intends to provide 1 million families with access to the Internet this year," says a ChiaTechNews story here
The municipal government has three-year program to "disseminate information knowledge to the general public" as well as to connect broadband to one million households. And, "100,000 residents will be trained with basic computer knowledge and the ability to search the Internet," says the story, going on:
"As many as 100 ‘digital homelands,’or small computer labs for residential communities, will be built and thousands of volunteers with professional knowledge will be encouraged to impart their skills to common residents."
China’s Ministry of Culture says 47% of of Beijing’s three million homes were hooked up to the Net by the end of March this year and that 62% of the families in eight downtown districts were online, "about three times the 21.9% found in the rural part of Beijing".
Broadband access dominated the market in Beijing with 63.8% of Beijing homes going online.
The city has a population of about 11 million. At the moment, only 1.9 million of its computers are connected to the Internet, or 6.4% of the total number of computers online nation-wide, says ChinaTechNews, adding:
"Youths between 18 and 24 years old currently make up the largest proportion among Beijing netizens. They mainly consist of college students, company technicians and IT professionals. Meanwhile, many disadvantaged people, including retired employees, laid-off workers and citizens living on minimum allowances, do not have access to Internet, said the office’s website."
China is going full-out to close ‘unlicensed’ Net cafes with almost 16,000 being shut since March and censorship has been imposed on computer games and digital movies.
