When considering the digital divide it is most important to remember that this divide describes a technological problem. Providing citizens with access to technology (computers, Internet, etc.) is important, however, if no attention or time is invested in training people on how to use these technologies, then this vision of personal democracy online will not come to pass.

In his 2007 book Convergence Culture, and again at the Beyond Broadcast conference last week, MIT professor Henry Jenkins points to the participation gap as being a more chronic problem. As Jenkins describes it, interactivity is a product of technology, while participation is product of culture. While its relatively easy to narrow the digital divide, by investing and distributing many inexpensive computers, closing the participation gap requires a more long term and systemic change to the values of our culture. Changes that need to be made in schools, families, and at civic, state and federal governments. Closing the digital divide and the participatory gap is more than infrastructure issue, and the best way to make the change is by starting to participate and showing others (friends, family, colleages, etc) how easy participation can be.

Melinda is right, Ask Your Lawmaker can be a great tool for encouraging participation in the policy discussion here on the Hill... but AYL will never take off unless people use the site and share it with their friends.