Information and Communications Technology Development and the Digital Divide: A Global and Regional Assessment

Abstract

The rapid development in information and communications technologies (ICTs) has created a wealth of opportunities for businesses and societies around the world. Yet, the disparity in the ICT adoption between developed and developing countries, often referred to as the Digital Divide, continues to widen. As a result, the digital divide has remained an issue of significant importance to policy-makers and scholars. In an effort to measure the magnitude of the digital divide and monitor how the disparity evolves over time, the United Nations commissioned the development of a comprehensive ICT Development Index (IDI) in 2009. The objective of this paper is to extend the methodology used in the IDI project and other scientific results presented in previous research to measure the digital divide. Using data mining techniques, we analyze ICT profiles from 154 countries to provide a rigorous quantitative assessment of the digital divide. In addition to analyzing the digital divide at the global level, we present our results at a regional level by identifying countries that are leaders and followers in their respective geographical area. Moreover, our analysis found that between 2002 and 2007, nine countries have made a significant progress in ICT adoption such that they have transitioned into a group previously consisting primarily of developed countries.

An analytics approach to exploring the link between ICT development and affordability

“…Ayanso et al (2010) analyzed the regional and global digital divides by profiling 192 member states of the United Nations (UN) based on their ICT infrastructure, which included five primary indicators -the Internet, PC, cell phone, main telephone, and broadband. Ayanso et al (2014) also extended this research using the IDI data set (ITU, 2009), which was more comprehensive and was constructed based on a conceptual framework involving three key components of the information society model: access, use, and skills. This extended analysis provided a broader insight into the digital divide issue by incorporating not only access to ICT infrastructures, but also ICT usage and skills.…”

“…In recent years, issues concerning the digital divide have received significant attention in academic research (e.g., NTIA, 1995NTIA, , 1998NTIA, , 1999DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, 2001;Sciadas, 2002;Sciadas, 2005;Dewan & Riggins, 2005;Cuervo & Menéndez, 2006;Deichmann et al, 2006;van Dijk, 2006;Fryer & Grander, 2008;Ayanso, Cho, & Lertwachara, 2010;Ayanso, Cho, & Lertwachara, 2014). The concept of the digital divide was originally used to describe the gap in Internet access between rural and urban areas of the United States, and particularly considered the lack of access to online resources for the following groups: minorities, the elderly, and people with lower incomes, lower levels of education, and people with disabilities (Hoffman & Novak, 1998;Norris, 2001;Sciadas, 2002).…”

“…Cuervo and Menéndez (2006) used cluster analysis to examine the ICT infrastructure development levels among the European Union countries. Ayanso et al (2009Ayanso et al ( , 2014 also used cluster analysis to explore the regional as well as global digital divides in different settings.…”

Factors contributing to adoption and use of information and communication technologies within research collaborations in Kenya

“…However, even with these major improvements, significant differences exist in ICT infrastructure between the developed and developing worlds (Ayanso, Cho, & Lertwachara, 2014;ITU, 2013), which determine how ICTs are used for research purposes. HEIs in the developed world enjoy high-capacity internet connections capable of supporting various forms of communication.…”

Intention for Voting IN PAKISTAN: THE role of Social Media, Ethnicity, and Religiosity

“…Political counsellors and nominees emigrate from using traditional advertisement methods to the use of the Internet and e-mail (Ayanso et al 2014). Dalbey (2013), suggests that within two years most of the campaigns cost and time will be web-based campaigns.…”