Digital Opportunity Index by Michael Minges

DigitalÂ OpportunityÂ Index

Michael Minges TMG, Inc.

2007 Partnership Forum on Measuring Information Society Taipei International Convention Center, 26 October 2007

Digital Opportunity Index  History  Results  Comparability  Recommendations

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Plan of Action

1. In cooperation with each country concerned, develop and launch a composite ICT Development (Digital Opportunity) Index.

Definitions 



The whole population having easy access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at affordable prices; All homes equipped with ICT devices; All citizens having mobile ICT devices; and Everyone using broadband.

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Digital “of or relating to data in the form of numerical digits”

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Opportunity “a good chance for advancement or progress”

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Index “a number (as a ratio) derived from a series of observations and used as an indicator or measure”

Source: www.webster.com

Problems with existing indexes  Subjective  Exclusive  Poor

choice of indicators  Outdated / incorrect / missing data  Opaque / unavailable methodology  Limited analysis over time

Why an another ICT index? • Almost all existing ICT indices concentrate primarily on developed economies • Some do not use internationally comparable indicators and some have methodological snags or are susceptible to distortions due to the use of qualitative variables • Most are not specifically targeted at measuring ICT access • Wherever these indices use too many variables, transparency compromised

I ndex 1 I ndex 2 I ndex 3 DAI

178

120 100 82 53

Variables

8 Countries

Human Development Index 

“The human development index (HDI) is a composite index that measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:

• • •

a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools; and a decent standard of living, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars. The index is constructed from indicators that are available globally using a methodology that is simple and transparent.”

http://hdr.undp.org/hd

Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development 

Approved list of ICT indicators

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/partnership/material/CoreICTIndicators.pdf

Indicators Percentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Percentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Internet access tariffs (20 hours per month) as a % of per capita income

Mobile cellular tariffs (100 minutes of use per month) as a % of per capita income

Mobile cellular tariffs (OECD low user basket) as a % of per capita income

Proportion of households with a fixed line

Proportion of households with a computer

Proportion of households with Internet

Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of individuals who used the Internet

Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of mobile Internet subscribers

Broadband Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of broadband subscribers Proportion of 3G subscribers

Core

DOI