Jag vill slå ett slag för en ny rapport från UNCTAD: “Information Economy Report 2009 – Trends and Outlook in Turbulent Times”. Här finns en hel del spännande statistik om användningen av Internet i världen. Det finns ett särskilt fokus på vad som händer i utvecklingsländerna.
Några high lights:
- information and communication technologies (ICTs) have proven to be a tremendous accelerator of economic and social progress
- while fixed telephone subscriptions are now in slight decline, mobile and (to a lesser extent) Internet usage continues to expand
rapidly in most countries and regions - at the end of 2008, the number of mobile subscriptions reached 4 billion
- the penetration level in developing countries is now eight times higher than what it was in 2000
- the number of [Internet]users grew five times faster in developing
than in developed countries - while more than half the population in the developed world is now online, the corresponding share is on average only 15–17 per cent in developing and transition economies
- the digital divide is particularly pronounced in the case of broadband. Average penetration was more than eight times higher in developed than in developing countries. There is furthermore a huge gap in terms of broadband speed. […] To make things worse, there is also a “broadband price divide” […]
- comparing the spread of the different ICTs with the distribution of income in the world shows that mobile access has become the most equitably distributed ICT
- most empirical studies on the impact of ICTs have found a positive correlation between the use of ICTs and corporate performance measured by labour productivity. This also applies to ICT use by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries
- in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, [mobiles] are used extensively for voice communication and SMS (short message service), and increasingly also for other data applications such as m-commerce and m-banking
- in both developed and developing countries, large enterprises use ICTs (such as computers and the Internet as well as broadband) more than SMEs
- in many developing countries, the main purpose of Internet access is to send and receive e-mails; few companies use it as a marketing tool or to make banking transactions
- countries in which the business sector has been keen to adopt ICTs have typically shown a strong policy commitment towards such technologies, emphasized the development of a competitive ICT infrastructure at least in urban areas, taken steps to build a workforce with the necessary skills and technological capabilities and sought to create an enabling regulatory environment
- important areas of government intervention to encourage greater adoption and use of ICT in the business sector include making it a core element in a national ICT strategy, improving ICT infrastructure in underserved areas, building relevant skills, promoting the development of local content and strengthening the legal and regulatory framework
Ladda hem och läs!
Vad gäller de två sista punkterna så kan jag bara, baserat på mina erfarenheter av at främja användningen av IT inom skolan på svensk, nordisk och europeisk grund, hålla med. Just nu känner jag ett särskilt intresse för frågor kring lagstiftning och regelverk av olika slag. Här finns många saker som måste hanteras.
Roligt att vi på Bearing Consulting har flera uppdrag som relaterar till dessa frågor 🙂
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