The popular and ever-useful blog Lifehacker reports that most locations of Starbucks will today begin offering free wi-fi access to customers (click here for the story). There's a catch, of course. You've still gotta buy $5 or more in coffee. What does this mean, aside from the likelihood of Internet postings becoming even more jittery and incomprehensible as all that caffeine kicks in?
Well, it points again to the "digital divide," that gap in people's access to the information world that is caused by factors like age, tech-savvy, and ability to pay for the Internet. Information has become a valuable commodity, as Starbucks has certainly noticed. All this makes libraries, with (at least in our library) really free wi-fi ever more relevant these days.
Well, it points again to the "digital divide," that gap in people's access to the information world that is caused by factors like age, tech-savvy, and ability to pay for the Internet. Information has become a valuable commodity, as Starbucks has certainly noticed. All this makes libraries, with (at least in our library) really free wi-fi ever more relevant these days.
1 comment:
I typically buy coffee when I go to Starbucks anyway... seems like a savvy marketing tool, if a little subversive :-D
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