Today's dailyLinks from elearningpost.com contained one to a very interesting article with a provocative title: Let Them Eat IT: The Myth of the Global Village as an Interactive Utopia, by Songok Han Thornton, revisits Marshall McLuhans's notion of the "global village" in the context of the Internet.

I found the article interesting for many reasons, including:

• I've always thought that McLuhan's theories relate well to the Web -- for me it makes sense to draw parallels between McLuhan's thoughts and writing about culture and the "global village" and the Internet
  
• the article is "academic" in nature and contains extensive references (70) covering the width of theory on topics such as "the global village"; "online communities"; and the "digital divide"
  
• the article provides a viewpoint that North Americans don't always encounter. For instance, we've come to believe that technology can and will solve all our problems as a society. The articles notes that access is far from universal. In fact, "most of the world's six billion people do not even have access to telephones, much less computers."
  

The article has provided food for thought on this issue and introduced me to a way of thinking that, while I may not be able to appreciate, I can try to understand.