Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth

Cahit Gurkok and his Bottomless Bag of Digital Divide Data

Cahit Gurkok of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is now discussing global strategies for “jumping” the digital divide. Of course, catch phrases such as bridging the digital divide or jumping it are simply slogans rather than actual strategies, he noted, but he emphasized it’s very important to collect accurate data on a variety of metrics to understand the state of ICT equity and implement evidence-based policies. Using the ITU’s Digital Access Index, Gurkok displayed a map in which countries with higher success in bridging the divide were raised like their were mountains, and countries that have a larger digital divide were displayed as valleys. The map painted a stark picture of the state of the international divide – and an appropriate one, given the previous presentation on GIS digital mapping by Winnie Tang of ESRI.

Along with traditional digital divide statistics, Gurkok showed trends in technology-related patents, as well as the availability of funding for technology innovation and deployment. Other charts compared the connection between inter-regional trade and inter-regional bandwidth availability; one map color-coded countries based on technology innovators, technology adopters, and technology excluded. I’m hoping I can get a copy of his powerpoint presentation because there’s no way to capture the wealth of data he managed to present in a 10-minute forensic sprint.