Thoughts/Questions on Technology and the Digital Divide

I've been thinking about our discussion on the first night of class in regards to the positive and negative aspects of technology, and how this may relate to Internet2. Internet2 in some ways takes a different direction from the normal "trajectory" of technological advancement (i.e. creating technology for technology's sake or technology as a commodity) in its methods and exploration of ways to collaborate and connect when perhaps there would not have been opportunity to do so otherwise. How does this relate to ideas surrounding the digital divide, or ways of increasing access to those without (and the benefit of that)? Will Internet2 eventually be a component in how divides are addressed?

It is also interesting to think about how we are "seduced" by technology (as we discussed in class; this goes back to technology for technology's sake), how this effects quality and whether that matters. For example, in class we discussed that we now like to hear the surface noise on a vinyl recording (whereas in the past that was a nuisance, or it was not even noticed when that particular technology was "state of the art"). How does this relate to our overall response to technological advancement (for example, feelings of nostalgia), and in lieu of that, to a medium like Internet2 which perhaps seeks to use or define the use of technology in new ways? These are questions that are worth exploring further.