Korea Ranks Second in the World on the ITU's New ICT Development Index

The International Telecommunications Union has just issued a new report entitled Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index.  Earlier indexes constructed by the ITU included the digital access index, and the digital opportunity index (DOI)  In recent years, South Korea had ranked number one in the world on the DOI.  Essentially the new ICT Development Index (IDI) is a response to calls for a single index that will allow nations of the world to assess their progress toward building the information society and eliminating the digital divide.  As shown in the accompanying graphic, all of the top ten countries on the IDI are from Northern Europe, with the exception of South Korea.  The complete report can be downloaded in a PDF version from the ITU's website, using this link.

More on ICT Indexes

My previous post noted the differences between Korea's ranking on the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) and its world rank according to the Networked Readiness Index. In fact, although these two indices receive considerable attention, there are many more, as shown in Table 2 (click on the graphic to see a larger image) from the Global Information Society Watch website. The indices listed in this table all represent efforts to measure information and communication technology (ICT) and the manner in which it contributes to "development." However, they vary considerably in how ICT and development are conceptualized. They also differ in terms of the variables that are measured, the number of countries in which they are measured, and other important aspects. In future posts I plan to take a closer look at all of the major indices. However, at first glance it seems that the Digital Opportunity Index is a leader because of its origins and auspices. It is a product of the ITU's Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development , an international, multi-stakeholder initiative to improve the availability and quality of ICT data and indicators, particularly in developing countries. The World Bank's Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) has produced other indexes, notably the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) which can be explored in depth at their web site. For an interesting treatment of how these and other indices, including the Networked Readiness Index, compare, see the report "Measuring Progress" at the Global Information Society Watch website.

"Networked Readiness" versus "Digital Opportunity" Indexes

The World Economic Forum has just released its Global Information Technology Report 2007-8, which centers on the "Networked Readiness Index" it developed a number of years ago. Although Korea shot up in the world rankings this year, from 19th to 9th, I cannot help wondering exactly why this index ranks it lower than the ITU's Digital Opportunity Index, by which South Korea is number one in the world. Most of you are probably thinking the same thing that I am, but I'm not ready to let the cat out of the bag without some further analysis. Quite obviously, these are two different indexes that measure different things. Equally obviously, I need to look at exactly what each index measures, why those measures were chosen, and how they are used. That will be the subject of future posts here. Your thoughts on this subject are most welcome.

The ITU's Digital Opportunity Index--Korea Ranks Number One in the World

For the past several years, South Korea has ranked number one in the world on the ITU's Digital Opportunity Index (DOI). For that reason alone it is worth understanding what this index is and what it measures. The index is based on 11 ICT indicators, grouped in 3 clusters: opportunity, infrastructure and utilization, as illustrated in the accompanying graphic (click the graphic for larger version).

Moreover, the DOI is an outgrowth of the World Summit on the Information Society meetings organized by the ITU. Among the dominant concerns at these meetings was the digital divide and the degree to which developing as well as developed nations could achieve digital opportunity. In the Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, participants decided that, in an ideal world, digital opportunity would mean:

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

As one can see from a glance at the world map, digital opportunity currently varies greatly from country to country and regionally. A couple of points deserve to be emphasized about South Korea's world-leading ranking on the DOI index. First, the index contains a strong measure of infrastructure. The presence and pervasiveness of an infrastructure, or we might say the ubiquity of a network, is a necessary precondition for the equitable flow of information among all citizens in an information society. Second, the "opportunity" which concerns the ITU is opportunity for all citizens, to access information, not simply the question of whether the new networks contribute to economic growth. Third, this index does not incorporate measures of literacy and education, but the inclusion of such data would in all likelihood bolster South Korea's standing. Fourth and finally, one would hope that somehow an index like DOI could be related to the language in which information is accessed, processed and used. The incoming administration in Seoul argues that English has become the lingua franca and therefore Korea needs to mount a major effort to improve English ability precisely in order to improve productivity. If 90 percent of the information on the internet today is in English, is fluency in that language a pre-requisite to true digital opportunity?