« Kansas Boycotts Science; Maybe We Should Boycott Kansas? | Main | What Do Bloggers and Jerry Falwell Have in Common? »
November 9, 2005
Mapping the Digital Divide on a Global Scale
 |
Screen shot of Alcatel and Maplecroft's new digital acccess map. |
According to Alcatel and Maplecroft,
Much of today's information is accessible on the Internet and other electronic forms through ICTs. For many people however, access to electronic information is difficult or even impossible - leaving them excluded from opportunities to access global markets and information resources. This lack of access creates what is commonly referred to as the 'digital divide'.This 'divide' threatens economic growth and social development and mostly affects marginalized people with reduced access to ICTs due to a lack of capacity, finances or infrastructures. Overcoming this divide through digital inclusion is mostly about enabling social inclusion - using ICT as a vehicle to improve skills, enhance quality of life, drive education and promote economic wellbeing for all of society.
The website generates a map of the world, with each country color-coded based on its score in the ITU's Digital Access Index. The data is a couple of years old now, but at least it allows you to get a visual sense about the yawning gap between developed and developing countries.
As you explore the map, you'll find little symbols indicating specific remarks about what's going on in a particular country or region. You can also click onto a country and get a broader collection of development data and other local statistics. You can even explore other data sets related to political instability, landmines, the environment, corruption, and other important global indicators.
Occasionally the tool gets a little sticky - sometimes data boxes pop up on the screen and don't disappear - but otherwise it's a fascinating visualization of the digital divide. Too bad they didn't design it using Google Maps or another tool that would allow digital divide activists to add their own data to the map. Now that would have been really cool... -andy
Posted by acarvin at November 9, 2005 2:16 PM
Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article
