In IT circles, the term digital divide is used to describe the gap between the wealthier, web-connected, higher-tech societies and the poorer, less-connected, lower-tech societies where poverty prevents the digital renaissance from taking root. On one side of the digital divide lies our digital world, while on the other is the disconnected world. Just as the world was once divided between east and west, it is now divided between connected and disconnected. Our aim is to help build bridges between these worlds, so that the disconnected can become connected, and utilize the emerging palette of digital devices and technologies to find their voice, empower their communities, and preserve their traditions while at the same time gaining the skills needed to participate in the increasingly digital global economy.

In short, we hope to narrow the digital divide that has long separated these two different worlds, and believe that closing this gap is one of the great moral imperatives of our age.

Our world becomes smaller every day, especially through the transformative impact of new technology. Recent advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have been staggering, with the continuing impact of Moore's Law (which predicts the doubling of microprocessor power every 18 months) delivering faster and less expensive silicon chips powering everything from personal computers to mobile phones and digital cameras, which are increasingly connected by social networking sites, blogs, photo and video sharing sites, and other platforms of digital self-expression.

Together, this unique fusion of digital devices and networks has empowered a new generation of independent content creators to outflank the traditional pillars of media, including official state media organizations in nondemocratic countries. Rather than just one, or a small handful, of networks limiting our choices of broadcast content, we now have a growing legion of micropublishers, bloggers, tweeters, and web-based media distributors like Youtube democratizing the way we communicate. Streams of images from recent events in Iran, Xinjiang, Tibet and Myanmar demonstrate the transformative power of new media to make our planet smaller, from the silent majesty of protesting Buddhist monks in Burma to the tragic execution of Neda, the martyr of Iran's green revolution.

This digital renaissance has unleashed a million fresh and uncensored voices, able to communicate with a global audience, saying anything they please, bypassing the traditional gatekeepers and state censors, liberating both the content creators and their audiences in the process.

Sharing the Tools of Digital Expression... and Empowerment

But not everyone has yet been liberated by the seeming ubiquity of the Internet and the proliferation of digital devices connected to it. As cheap as today's ICT is to all of us in the digital world, there are still hundreds of millions of people who can't afford these new and empowering tools and remain part of the disconnected world.

Our primary mission at Smaller Planet is to help facilitate the transfer of technology across the digital divide, so that tools of digital empowerment can benefit those who stand the most to gain.  That means helping transfer surplus digital devices to communities where basic tools like digital cameras remain well beyond the economic means of most villagers, promoting training in digital media creation, and helping to develop platforms for the distribution of cultural content.

Our founder had the privilege of working in the Arctic for nearly a decade, participating in the movement to re-appropriate print, radio and television media as tools to preserve traditional indigenous language and culture - watching how these new technologies, when in the hands of local peoples, can give them a voice, reinvigorate their confidence, and help foster a sense of balanced development, without sacrificing traditional knowledge and traditions. In this way, the villages of the Far North could begin to preserve their unique historical knowledge, while gaining new skills necessary to participate in the modern economy.

The Internet is even more powerful than broadcasting as a socially transformative medium. That's because it's both interactive, fostering communication between users, and because its barrier to entry is so low. Television production once required expensive equipment and an even more expensive means of distribution, whether by satellite, local transmitters, or cable - all cost-prohibitive infrastructure for much of the developing world.

But to participate in the Internet revolution and to become a content creator and distributor costs just a small fraction of traditional broadcasting - meaning more and more people can participate in the digital renaissance if provided with its basic tools. That is where Smaller Planet comes in.

Planting the Seeds for Technology Innovation

We believe that the first step toward greater inclusion and participation is making more widely available the many components that define the new digital ecosystem: still and video cameras; audio recorders and players; plus the training, software and web platforms required to edit, publish and broadcast cultural content on the web.

While the world is getting smaller, it is still a vast place - and we know we can't help close the digital divide everywhere or all at once. That's why we're starting slowly, identifying pilot projects where we can make a difference.

Preserving Indigenous Culture and Language

The world is filled with thousands of unique and precious indigenous languages, spoken by and large by an aging population whose numbers are declining. In a generation, much of the world's traditional knowledge will disappear unless we act now to slow this erosion. We know that we can't stop the pace of globalization, nor do we want to. We believe connecting to the digital economy can lift isolated communities out of poverty. But we also believe the very same tools used to connect the world can also be used to preserve traditional knowledge before it disappears. 

Technology and Hope

While working on a pilot project in Vietnam last year, we set up shop in an Internet café in the lobby of Camellia's Guest House in Sapa, in the northern part of the country near the Chinese border. Every evening, it filled up with young Hmong teens surfing the web, using video and text messaging to communicate in their own language over the Web, sending messages to friends all over the world.  And on the road to Tibet a few weeks later, near the Yunnan border, we came across another Internet café filled with young junior monks in their bright red robes, similarly surfing the Web at night after studying their traditions during the day. Straddling the digital and the disconnected world, these young people are pointing the way toward a balanced future. Yet not far from these Internet cafés were very poor villages lacking electricity and paved roads, where horse-drawn carts and water buffalo are still in use, and where the promise of the digital renaissance seems a far-off dream.

Fostering a Smaller Planet

If you live in or work with a community with a surviving indigenous language that faces the risk of linguistic extinction, and would like us to help set you up with new tools of digital creativity so you can record your elders' stories, songs and lessons, and capture images of traditional village life, let us know.

Similarly, if you have surplus digital equipment available for donation, particularly functional digital devices like cameras, let us know. We will work with you to place your equipment to a community where it can be used for cultural preservation.

We know that we can't go it alone, so are working hard at identifying like-minded organizations that share our vision, and which are already hard at work in communities in need of new technology - so that they, too, can cross the digital divide. We are not yet a registered charitable organization, and can not offer you a tax deduction for donations - yet! But in the meantime, we can recommend several registered charitable organizations that you may donate directly to.