ICTlogy

UNCTAD has released their Information Economy Report for year 2006

The Information Economy Report 2006: The Development Perspective provides unique data on the adoption of ICT by enterprises in developing countries. It also explores ICT policy options in a developing-country context and proposes a framework for national ICT policy reviews and for the design and assessment of pro-poor e-strategies.

As it is stated in this introduction, it is true that the whole report has a focus on development: chapter 1 talks about e-readiness and the digital divide trends; chapter 2 reviews the successful factors to foster the Information Economy (Information Society); and chapter 3 is dedicated to ICT4D and ICT4P (yet another acronym: ICT for Poverty Reduction). Next chapters enter specific sectors such as oil, employment and e-commerce, but always with this development bias.

I’d like to quote something we’ve already stressed here before:

With regard to the type (or mode) of Internet access, there are large differeces between developed countries, where broadband is growing rapidly, and developing countries, where dial-up is still prevalent. This changing nature of Internet modes of access is a new dimension of the international digital divide.

(Page xxi. Emphasis is mine)

It is interesting to note that UNCTAD uses Orbicom’s methodology to analyze the digital divide, instead of, for instance, ITU’s indices such as DAI or DOI, or UNCTAD’s own index of ICT Diffusion, which, I agree, are most incomplete when considering the whole economy and not only infrastructures.

More info

• Information Economy Report 2006 (website)
• Information Economy Report 2006 (Full report)(12.2 Mb)
• UNCTAD Publications selected collection
• Sciadas, G. (Ed.) (2003). Monitoring the Digital Divide… and Beyond. Montreal: Orbicom.
• Sciadas, G. (Ed.) (2005). From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities. Montreal: Orbicom.

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