{{Everybody in the world will be on the Internet within seven years. <\/p>\n
That’s what Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this weekend in public comments that inspired everything from excitement to incredulity.}}<\/p>\n
“For every person online, there are two who are not,” Schmidt wrote Saturday on his Google+ account. “By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected.”<\/p>\n
He followed up with a related thought on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“Think about how great the internet is with 2B users. Now think about how amazing it will be when 5B come online in a decade. #NewDigitalAge.”<\/p>\n
It’s just the sort of big thinking that has led Google to become one of the largest and most innovative tech companies in the world. But some of Schmidt’s own followers took exception.<\/p>\n
“You really believe that? What about the millions in Africa who can’t even get enough food to eat or the natives in South America who have no idea what technology is?” a Google+ user going by the name “Mary M” wrote. “Maybe you should rephrase to those in civilized areas or something like that…”<\/p>\n
About 38% of the world’s population uses the internet in 2013, up from about 35% last year, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency dedicated to information and communication technology.<\/p>\n
With poor and developing nations around the world isolated by crumbling or nonexistent Web infrastructures, and others hindered by factors ranging from remote geography to government censorship, is Schmidt’s vision overly optimistic?<\/p>\n
{Google}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Everybody in the world will be on the Internet within seven years. That’s what Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this weekend in public comments that inspired everything from excitement to incredulity.}} “For every person online, there are two who are not,” Schmidt wrote Saturday on his Google+ account. “By the end of the decade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-7219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7219"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7219"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=7219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}