For All of Our Languages We are Not Natives Here

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the concept of the digital divide by critiquing the notion of the digital native and its relationship to the legal conception of technology transfer and sited knowledge. It is the contention of this paper that technology transfer is key in developmental issues currently facing the international community in general, and is the first and paramount step in bridging the digital divide specifically. In order to be sustainable, a technology transfer must include capacity building strategies in which the notion of suitably embedded knowledge is already present in other areas of international IP law; specifically in the areas of Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional Cultural Expression (TCE). Finally, if this concept of embedded knowledge is further applied to the idea of the digital divide then it becomes apparent that there is a socially damaging and a potentially ecologically unsound digital divide at work, even among those who are resource rich.