DIGITAL DIVIDE - Essay Example

Digital Divide The Global Information Technology Report of indicated that based on the data of 150 country economies, digitization increases asa country transforms from being a constrained economy to an emerging economy, transitional economy and advanced economy (Dutta & Bilbao-Osorio, 124). The Global Technology Report 2012 constructed a variable called “digitization” based on key attributes: ubiquity or universality of access to digital services, affordability of digital services, reliability, speed, usability of digital services, and “skill of corporate users to incorporate digital services into their lives and businesses” (Dutta & Bilbao-Osorio, 122). Based on the attributes, scores were developed and the scores became the basis for building an overall score on digitization with a scale of zero to 100 with 100 representing as the measure with the highest level of digitization. The Global Technology Report 2012 defined digitization as “the mass adoption of connected digital technologies and applications by consumers, enterprises, and governments” (Dutta & Bilbao-Osorio, 121).
However, the way that The Global Information Technology Report of 2012 defined the economies appears to indicates that no other finding would be possible except the finding that as an economy move from a constrained economy into an emerging economy and then ultimately into a transitional economy and eventually into an advanced economy, digitization would increase. “Constrained economies” were defined as economies with digitization scores below 25, “emerging economies” with digitization scores of 25 to 30, “transitional economies” with digitization scores of between 30 to 40, and “advanced economies” with digitization scores of greater than 40 (Dutta & Bilbao-Osorio, 122). Expectedly, The Global Information Technology Report of 2012 obtained Figure 1 on the relation between economy type and digitization for 150 economies of the world.
Figure 1. Type of economy and digitization

Source: Dutta & Bilbao-Osorio, 124
Based on The Global Information Technology Report of 2012 , the constrained and emerging economies include Ethiopia, Morocco, India, Egypt, China, Algeria, Thailand, Indonesia, Kenya, Angola, Lao PDR, Cuba, Iraq, Bangladesh, Uganda, Peru, Mongolia, Georgia, and Guatemala. The transitional economies include Turkey, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius, and Chile. Finally, the advanced economies include the United States, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Austria, and Australia. The countries enumerated are representative countries only. The association between GNP per capita and digitization in The Global Information Technology Report of 2012 is probably imperfect but nevertheless suggestive of the correlation between the two variables.
In contrast, the association between ICT or information and computer technology access/applications on one hand, and the gross national product per capita or GNP per capita on the other is clear in the graphs of the Digital Divide Organization based on 2007 data. These are in Figure 2 and Figure 3. In summary, the figures or graphs say that both ICT access and applications are positively associated with GNP per capita.
Figure 2. ICT Access and GNP per capita
Digital Divide Organization, 11
Figure 3. ICT Applications and GNP per capita
Digital Divide Organization, 11
Works Cited
Digital Divide Institute. “Relationship between the Country ICT Performance Measure (for Access and Applications) and Income per capita, developing country.” Digitaldivide.org. Digital Divide Institute, 2010. Web. 21 Sept 2012.
Dutta, Soumitra & Benat Bilbao –Osorio. The Global Information Technology Report 2012. Geneva: The World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012. Read More