iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session I (part II).
Opening Session (part II)
Chairs Carmen Sánchez-Carazo
Intelligent CitiesJosé Gumersindo García
ICTs will improve the image that public administrations have before the citizenry: proximity, transparency, etc.
e-Administration and Modernization go hand in hand and they are co-requisites for the development of both.
The Public Sector does have to bet on digital literacy training for their public servants. But not only their employees, but also firms. With this digital literacy many projects can take place: instant messaging for better communication, datasharing through wireless networks, e-commerce, etc.
Free software is very important for the Public Sector, and again,...
In
Digital Divide,
Connectivity,
meetings,
e-Readiness,
Digital Literacy,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration,
alcalde,
candelaria,
david cierco,
jose sindo garcia,
plan avanza
These are the materials I’m using at the iCities: Primeras Jornadas sobre Blogs, e-Government y Participación Digital [First Conference on Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation], for the opening speech, in which I take part on Friday 9th May 2008.
Slides:
Bibliography
Castells, M. (2000). “Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society”. In British Journal of Sociology, Jan-Mar 2000, 51(1), 5-24. London: Routledge.
Castells, M. (2004). “Informationalism, Networks, And The Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint”. In Castells, M. (Ed.), The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Dutta, S., López-Claros, A. & Mia, I. (Eds.) (2006). Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006: Leveraging ICT for...
In
E-Government,
Blog,
activism,
Engagement,
Use,
meetings,
e-Readiness,
Digital Literacy,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration
The World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008 is out. In my opinion, it does not bring any surprises, but reinforces some trends that we’ve been seeing lately:
The increasing strength and importance of wireless technologies to get connected to the Network
A gradual shift of the research focus from quantitative/economic impact analysis towards more qualitative/social impact analysis
Hence, the realization that ICTs are much more than (information) productivity tools, and they have a role in socialization (through communication), mediated by digital literacy
Part of the Global Information Technology Report gets its data from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, which, conducted annually, captures the perceptions of the leading...
Two years ago we here spoke about e-Readiness and the Human Development Index. The chart we then plotted was similar to this one:
[click to enlarge]
This chart now adds two tendency curves: one (exponential) for countries with a Human Development Index (HDI) over 7.00, and another one (linear, though absolutely irrelevant, on the other hand) for countries under 7.00 — though there are lots of countries missing: too poor to appear on the charts…).
Even if the regression is not really accurate (not at all) we can more or less see a relationship between e-Readiness and Development (as measured as HDI).
One of the main criticisms I have against how the digital divide, the Information Society or e-Readiness is measured (see below “More info” for a couple of references)...
In a recent event where I was invited to debate about the need whether to foster the Information Society, I was shocked about some positions from both some of the speakers on the round table I participated in and the audience.
The starting point was: is there a need to foster the Information Society, or the Web 2.0 is a sufficient empowerer so there’s no reason to set up centralized strategies and policies?
One of the first arguments to come to debate can be summed up by “if people find no interest on the Internet, they will not use it, even if the infrastructures are ready and affordability is good enough”.Which I absolutely share: people like Lenhart (2000), Compaine (2001) or Parks Associates (2007) have already given evidence about this fact — this is, of course,...
Framework
When framing all the impact of ICTs in society — and not only at the economic level — it is unavoidable to speak of Manuel Castells’s work, maybe the most acknowledged scholar in this field. Summing up and focusing on what is of interest here, Castells presents a society structured in three layers — relationships of production, experience and power — that by acting over matter (i.e. nature) — the former — and establishing relationships amongst them three layers, end up shaping a culture in a specific configuration of time and space. As technology plays and important role in both the relationships amongst layers and in the creation of culture, Castells theorizes on how ICTs are actually shaping nowadays culture in a very broad sense. His thesis is that the...
In
Information Society,
Policy,
Strategies,
Strategy,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
Spain,
web 2.0,
policies,
pull,
push,
ICT4D,
Digital Divide,
meetings,
e-Readiness
Today I imparted a seminar belonging to the Executive Master in e-Governance organized by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and partnered by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
General information
Details of the presentation (including slides to download)
Slides on Slideshare
Recommended Bibliography
I just want to thank the attendants to the course for being such an interesting audience and for making me think because of their witty questions.
Syllabus
Information and Communication Technologies for Development: ICT4D
Food or computers?
Efficacy, efficiency
Leapfrogging Development
Second Bests
Endogenous development
The concept of access and the measurement of the Knowledge Society
The Telecommunications Model: limitations
The Broadcasting Model: limitations
Access...
Andrea Burris
Creativity in the Information Economy: China Case Study
Andrea begins her session with an introduction to Economics fundamentals: relative advantage, surplus, etc. The question being: in the Information Society, how does surplus, the production function, etc. have changed respect to agricultural and industrial economies?
Technological change shifts the production function (see reference to Max H. Boisot at the end), but also makes that the level of chaos, that evolved from an “ordered” regime, through a complex regime, to a chaotic regime, drops back to an ordered regime again. The difference being that, normally, analyzes focuses on changes on end products and not on changes on processes.
Creativity is about going beyond the established frontiers of the actual...
Ismael Peña-López
Unpeeling the layers of the digital divide: category thresholds and relationships within composite indices
The goal of this research is to add reflection and knowledge to the belief that there is an important lack of tools to measure the development of the Information Society, specially addressed to policy makers aiming to foster digital development. We believe there is still an unexplored point of view in measuring the Information Society which goes from inside-out instead of outside-in. In other words, the main indices and/or reports focus either in technology penetration or in the general snapshot of the Information Society “as is”. There is, notwithstanding, a third approach that would deal with working only with digital-related indicators and indices,...
Student research seminar: Ismael Peña-López
The goal of this research is to add reflection and knowledge to the belief that there is an important lack of tools to measure the development of the Information Society, specially addressed to policy makers aiming to foster digital development. We believe there is still an unexplored point of view in measuring the Information Society which goes from inside-out instead of outside-in. In other words, the main indices and/or reports focus either in technology penetration or in the general snapshot of the Information Society “as is”. There is, notwithstanding, a third approach that would deal with working only with digital-related indicators and indices, thus including some aspects not taken into account by the technology penetration...
Leads: John Palfrey, Urs Gasser
With over a million young people “born digital,” now is the time to examine the emerging trends of how these digital natives construct identity, learn, create, and socialize in an ever-changing “always on” landscape. How do we give digital natives the tools (in terms of know-how, technology, social norms, or other means) to navigate safely in the emerging digital social space? How can copyright holders work with digital creators to understand their needs and practices in a way that doesn’t stifle their creativity? As a global society, can we come to understand what’s happening with a generation online, to embrace a digital present, and to shape, in constructive ways, a more digital future?
Digital Native Wiki
Digital...
The Economist Intelligence Unit — in co–operation with the IBM Institute for Business Value — has published the The 2007 e-readiness rankings.
One of the caveats the EUI launches is that the ranking methodology has been modified, hence changes in rankings methodology raise the bar of e-readiness leadership, giving more weight to leadership and, thus, strong government role in promotion and adoption of ICT propel Asian countries upward. It is my opinion that stressing leadership role — and, indirectly, the role of the political and legal framework — is a good thing to do, as it is far demonstrated that is one of the most important barriers or catalysts — depending on the sign — when fostering the Information Society.
Another comment on this change in the ranking methodology...
The second edition of the World Information Society Report is out, bringing us a new calculation for the Digital Opportunity Index.
It’s a pity that the graphical representation of the Digital Opportunity Map has changed colors, as it makes it more difficult to compare among years. Nevertheless, here come both maps for 2006 and 2005 (remember that the report shows the DOI for the preceding year):
Digital Opportunity Index 2006. Source: World Information Society Report 2007[click to enlarge]
Digital Opportunity Index 2005. Source: World Information Society Report 2006[click to enlarge]
Major improvements — DOI increases above 20%, World Rank increases above 5 places (most of them are two digits increases) — are those of Antigua & Barbuda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Cambodia,...
As an output of the XIII Cumbre Judicial Iberoamericana [XIII Latin American Summit on Justice], some researchers produced a report on the state of e-Justice in the 22 countries members of the summit.
After a first draft, now the report has officially been released. The researchers taking part in the report team are Pere Fabra (who coordinated), Albert Batlle, Agustí Cerrillo, Antoni Galiano, Ismael Peña-López (myself ;) and Clèlia Colombo.
If you can read Spanish (you should ;) I strongly recommend its reading, not because I’m one of the authors but because it goes deep into what I think is still an unexplored issue of both the Information Society and the area of Justice administration, the e-Justice index on of its most interesting contributions.
Report (4.69 Mb)
Executive...
Stéphan Gagnon, Patrick C.K. Hung, Katia Passerini and Miguel Vargas Martin, have edited a special issue of the International Journal for Infonomics on e-Readiness, entitled Measuring e-business for Development.
The table of contents looks appealing enough even for those interested in ICT indicators, or e-readiness, out of the e-business focus:
Measuring e-business for Development
Gagnon S., Hung P.C.K., Passerini K. and Vargas-Martin M.
Measuring the Diffusion of e-Business in the Information Society
Salmeron J.L., Banuls V.A.
Assessing e-Business Capabilities and Effectiveness: A Set of Key e-Business Metrics
Chatterjee D., Segars A.
E-governance in India: A Strategic Framework
Mahapatra R., Perumal S.
Synthetic indicators for measuring e-business: A target approach
Vilaseca J.,...
Here come two resources to help understand the resemblances and differences among indexes to measure the Information Society.
The first one:
Sciadas, G. (2004). International Benchmarking for the Information Society. Busan: ITU.
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/digitalbridges/docs/background/BDB-intl-indices.pdf
is a comparison of all (or almost, who knows one year after) the existing indexes
The second one:
International Telecommunication Union. (2005). Measuring Digital Opportunity. Seoul: ITU.
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/wsisbridges/linked_docs/Background_papers/Measuring_Digital_Opp_Revised_31_Oct_2005.pdf
is an essay led by the International Telecommunication Union to collaborate internationally to measure the digital divide: the Digital Opportunity Index
More ICT Data
More...
As promised — I did it by e-mail ;) — here come the presentations I intend to use in little more than an hour here in Trento. Click to see the abstracts and/or download them.
The Digital Divides or the third industrial revolution: concepts and figures. Presentation given in Trento, May 25th, 2006 in the homonimous seminar organized by the ICT International Doctorate School of the Università degli Studi Trento.
From e-Readiness to e-Awareness (or the way back). Presentation given in Trento, May 25th, 2006 in the homonimous seminar organized by the ICT International Doctorate School of the Università degli Studi Trento....
It’s been monts since last ITU’s World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report saw the light, but it’s not been until an accurate reading to prepare my tomorrow’s seminars that I realized the following statement:
ITU statistics show that over the last 10 years, the digital divide between the developing and the developed countries has been narrowing in terms of fixed telephone lines,
mobile subscribers and Internet users.
This was also stated by this year’s e-Readiness Rankings and I then disagreed. But now, now I got data.
[click to enlarge]
As can be seen, digital divide comparisons among developed and developing countries are relative, in %. According to this, its true: digital divide is narrowing. In 1994, mobile penetration for developing countries...
Though it is designed as an open debate among students and the speaker, I’m giving unilaterally a name to the second seminar I’m imparting in Trento — From e-Readiness to e-Awareness (or the way back) — just to give an idea about what I guess it is going to deal with. I was asked by the organization to please suggest some basic bibliography for the students to read and prepare some questions so the debate could be started.
I here present v2.0 of my initial list, somehow improved (or impovered, yours to judge) with 3 more references. There it goes:
Economist Intelligence Unit. (2006). The 2006 e-readiness rankings. London: EIU. Retrieved April 27, 2006...
The Economist Intelligence Unit 2006 e-readiness rankings have been published: the world in early 2006 may be proclaimed ever more “e-ready”. This year’s e-readiness rankings reflect such progress, as all but two countries have improved their scores from the previous year.
I absolutely disagree with this following statement: Just as encouraging is the apparent narrowing of the “digital divide” in some facets of e-readiness. This is particularly evident in basic connectivity.
Just out context, the only thing I can say is that "digital" is not only about wires, and that "divide" is a relative indicator, not an absolute one. Actually, basic connectivity is absolutely different than broadband connectivity. Thus, while e-readiness might be...
A zillion thanks to Amy Mahan who answered my call for help long ago. This post is mainly to thank her for all the worthy information she pointed me to. The first reference below was the one that originated her e-mail to me, along with two more resources, but the web links one thing to another and…
I here present the most important references that I’ve come to know thanks to her indications:
Towards an African e-Index: Household and Individual ICT Access across 10 African Countries:
Based on the 2004 e-Access & Usage Household survey that was completed during the course of 2004 and 2005, this report is the result of a demand study of individuals and households and how ICT’s are used across 10 African countries
Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for...
Answering my previous post (also sent to the DDN list), Jon Camfield points me to these references:
Milner, H. V. (2003). The Global Spread of the Internet: The Role of International Diffusion Pressures in Technology Adoption. New York: Columbia University.
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/hmilner/working%20papers/internet_diffusion8-03.pdf
Milner, H. V. (2004). The Digital Divide: The Role of Political Institutions in Technology Diffusion. New York: Columbia University.
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/hmilner/working%20papers/internet_democ3.pdf
Milner, H. V. (2006). The Digital Divide: The Role of Political Institutions in Technology Diffusion. In Comparative Political Studies, Volume 39, (No 2, March 200), pp 176-199. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
As can be easily seen, last two...
I’m trying to gather all kind of resources providing data and indicators about the state of the Information Society, specially those more related to development, digital divide and so.
Of course we’ve got ITU’s indicators and some others, but it’s getting really difficult to map the whole thing, from infrastructures to content and uses, including digital literacy, digital rights, etc.
I humbly ask for your help in this gathering of resources, with the promise I’ll be publishing the list in my ICT4D Wiki under one of these categories:
Data
Data Development
Data ICT
(or just a new one, we’ll see)
Hearty thanks in advance......
The World Economic Forum has released the Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006, being one of the more interesting outputs the Networked Readiness Index (NRI). A pity — like most cases — you have to pay to get the full report.
In open access you can find:
Some information on the Global Information Technology Report, mainly a table of contents, preface and executive summary.
Networked Readiness Index rankings (23 Kb) you can edit and tickle with.
I’d usually finish here my post, but tickling is tickling.
I put in a table both the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and the
Human Development Index (HDI). In another table, same NRI against the Education Index extracted from the HDI. And plotted a couple of graphics shown below.
[click to enlarge]
On vertical axis, NRI....
At the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (i.e. my Faculty) we are organising the II Congress on Internet, Law and Political Science that will be held in Barcelona (Spain) on May, 8th and 9th, 2006.
Among other issues:
eGovernment
Internet Governance
eJustice
eBusiness, security and digital crime
Data security and digital communications privacy
eAdministration and Public information
Websites and political parties
Democracy in ICTs
Our guest star is, no doubt, Benjamin Barber.
During the congress, the second issue of IDP, review of Internet, Law and Political Science will be presented. BTW, the call for communications is open and the best one will be published in the......
At the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (i.e. my Faculty) we are organising the II Congress on Internet, Law and Political Science that will be held in Barcelona (Spain) on May, 8th and 9th, 2006.
Among other issues:
eGovernment
Internet Governance
eJustice
eBusiness, security and digital crime
Data security and digital communications privacy
eAdministration and Public information
Websites and political parties
Democracy in ICTs
Our guest star is, no doubt, Benjamin Barber.
During the congress, the second issue of IDP, review of Internet, Law and Political Science will be presented. BTW, the call for communications is open and the best one will be published in the......
The World Economic Forum has released the Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006, being one of the more interesting outputs the Networked Readiness Index (NRI). A pity — like most cases — you have to pay to get the full report.
In open access you can find:
Some information on the Global Information Technology Report, mainly a table of contents, preface and executive summary.
Networked Readiness Index rankings (23 Kb) you can edit and tickle with.
I’d usually finish here my post, but tickling is tickling.
I put in a table both the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and the
Human Development Index (HDI). In another table, same NRI against the Education Index extracted from the HDI. And plotted a couple of graphics shown below.
[click to enlarge]
On vertical axis, NRI....
These last months we have been working (in fact, I joined the team just some weeks ago) i a project for the XIII Cumbre Judicial Iberoamericana about the state of e-Justice in the 22 countries members of the Cumbre.
The gathering of information has been very interesting and, in fact, we’re just in the middle of our way to a final report. Nevertheless, some really cute references have arosen concerning e-Readiness, my main field in the team.
Here they come:
Harvard University. (2000). Readiness for the Networked World. A Guide for Developing Countries. Cambridge: Center for International Development at Har vard University.
Retrieved February 17, 2006 from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/readinessguide/guide.pdf
Hilbert, M. R., Bustos, S. & Ferraz, J. C. (2005)....