The Dutch established public
computer literacy centers for the disenfranchised (e.g., the
unemployed) and provided them with discounted and subsidized
hardware and connection time.
In one of its more grandiose moments, the heads of governments
of the EU countries have decided in Lisbon (2000) that "each
citizen should have access to the Internet and the whole
European Union should become computer-literate", in the words
of the Czech conference organizers.
This is an ambitious undertaking not only because Europe in
general is behind the USA where Internet matters (with the
exception of wireless Internet) are concerned - but because
the countries which used to be behind the Iron Curtain, now
lurch in the Digital Divide.
According to Vasile Baltac from the Information Technology and
Communications Association of Romania ("The Balkan and Eastern
Europe - Digital Divide or Digital Opportunity"), Romania has
invested $25 per capita in ICT in 1999 (compared to Greece's
$567 and the EU's average of $1215). There were only 2.5
Internet users per 1000 inhabitants in Romania and Bulgaria -
compared to 56.
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