Sizing Up Information Societies: Toward a Better Metric for the Cultures of ICT Adoption

Howard, Philip N.; Anderson, Ken; Busch, Laura; Nafus, Dawn

doi:10.1080/01972240902848948

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Depending on the definition and the scope of the exercise, the results can be contradictory. Most typically, research that focuses on the access dimension (diffusion of technological equipment) argues in favor of a rapidly closing digital divide (e.g., Compaine 2001;Howard et al 2009), while research focusing on skill-related usage and impact indicators claims that the divide is still deepening (e.g., van Dijk 2005;James 2008).…”

Section: Multiple Dimensions Of Technology Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After analyzing patterns of ICT equipment diffusion, some policy-related reports come to the delicate conclusion that the access dimension of the digital divide is closing rapidly and that underserved sections of the population are in an unprecedented process of catching up (e.g., Compaine 2001;ITU 2006;UNCTAD 2006;WEF-INSEAD 2006;ITU and UNCTAD 2007;Howard et al 2009). In particular, it is argued that the divide diminishes rapidly as the markets in the developed countries get increasingly saturated.…”

Section: The Closing Digital Equipment Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

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Information Societies or “ICT Equipment Societies?” Measuring the Digital Information-Processing Capacity of a Society in Bits and Bytes

Hilbert

López

Vasquez

2010

The Information Society

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The digital divide is conventionally measured in terms of information and communication technology (ICT) equipment diffusion, which comes down to counting the number of computers or phones, among other devices. This article fine-tunes these approximations by estimating the amount of digital information that is stored, communicated, and computed by these devices. The installed stock of ICT equipment in the consumer segment is multiplied with its corresponding technological performance, resulting in the "installed technological capacity" for storage (in bits), bandwidth (in bits per second), and computational power (in computations per second). This leads to new insights. Despite the rapidly decreasing digital equipment divide, there is an increasing gap in terms of information-processing capacity. It is shown that in 1996 the average inhabitant of the industrialized countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had a capacity of 49 kibps more than its counterpart from Latin America and the Caribbean. Ten years later, this gap widened to 577 kibps per inhabitant. This innovative approach toward the quantification of the digital divide leads to numerous new challenges for the research agenda.The far-reaching and profound impact of the digitization of information and communication processes has long been noted (e.g., Wiener 1948; Machlup 1962;Bell 1973). It is widely recognized that the advancement of digital information and communication technologies (ICT) has led to a new mode of development (e.g., Perez 1983; Freeman and Louça 2001). With the arrival of digital systems, the storage, communication, and computation of information became the omnipresent core of social and political activity, and of economic and cultural production (e.g., Webster 1995;Castells 1996). This has put the question of how to track and measure the diffusion and eventual impacts of these new technologies on the center stage.This article is a contribution to this discussion. We propose to improve the measure of traditional ICT access indicators by adjusting existing ICT equipment statistics with the corresponding quality of their performance. The stock of available technologies is multiplied with their corresponding performance measures. The result is three new aggregate indicators that represent the "installed information-processing capacity": (1) how much information can be stored (in bits), (2) communicated (in bits per second), and (3) computed (in computations per second). This improvement not only contributes to the 157

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Section: Multiple Dimensions Of Technology Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Closing Digital Equipment Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

Information Societies or “ICT Equipment Societies?” Measuring the Digital Information-Processing Capacity of a Society in Bits and Bytes

Hilbert

López

Vasquez

2010

The Information Society

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“…Hirose and Sonehara (2008) argue for new avenues for managing information-credibility risk in today's ICT era and consider positive and negative effects of ICTs. Howard et al (2009) explore the role that economic, political and cultural factors play in explaining ICT diffusion. They offer a new perspective on weighting technology diffusion data by economic wealth to delineate which other factors -such as politics and culture -influence how well a country metabolizes new technologies.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking generativity and disruptive innovation to conceptualize ICTs

Menon

2011

Internet Research

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Purpose -This paper focuses on two prominent theoretically grounded approaches to this subject matter, namely disruptive innovations and generativity of the internet. This paper seeks to explicitly link these conceptual approaches in order to contribute to the epistemology on the development of ICTs. Design/methodology/approach -This paper is structured in three primary and functional sections. The first section provides a theoretically grounded literature review on the research on the generativity of the internet and on disruptive innovation as well as the research base and links and forwards these two lines of discourse. The second section describes how the conceptual foundations and assumptions of Zittrain's generativity of the internet and Christensen's disruptive innovation share common precepts and conceptual assumptions. The third section suggests that the discourse for each of the two approaches could be furthered by more deliberately and concretely drawing on the value of complementarities. Findings -This paper offers argumentation suggesting that the theoretical concepts of hierarchies and markets are also useful in drawing conceptual linkages between the disruptive innovations and generativity of the internet approaches. Research limitations -Since this paper is intended to focus on conceptual issues a possible limitation is that an empirical discussion of this subject matter lies outside the scope of this paper's thesis. Practical implications -This conceptual paper has practical implications for academics, executives in the private sector and policy officials who are interested in conceptually grounded implications of ICTs and attended issues of innovation and technological change. Social implications -The implications mainly pertain to how the process of innovation and technological change impacts the interactions among these firms both in terms of competition and collaboration. Originality/value -This paper seeks to explicitly link conceptual approaches in order to contribute to the epistemology on the development of ICTs. The conceptual contribution of this paper goes one step further by suggesting how the discourse for each of the two approaches could be furthered by more deliberately and concretely drawing on the value of complementarities.

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“…Worldwide, there is a modest correlation between economic atmosphere, information access, and the democratic political environment (Howard et al 2010:110). It has been difficult to relate policy interventions with improvement in the diffusion or distribution of information technology within or between countries (Howard et al 2009:208-219;Howard et al 2009Howard et al :1159Howard et al -1169. And while some researchers have worked on the global Internet inequality by developing quantitative measures, much less work has been done on developing benchmarks for measuring the internet divide within countries.…”

Section: Internet Diffusion and Internet Inequality In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DOTForce 2001: 3), there still appears to be geographical limitations with communication technologies that people from poor societies have access to (Norris 2001). Frankly, there seem to be no straightforward connection between new-internet policy reforms in the ICT industry and closing the digital divide (Howard et al 2009(Howard et al : 1159(Howard et al -1169.…”

Section: Internet Diffusion and Internet Inequality In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘We are connected, but constrained’: internet inequality and the challenges of millennials in Africa as actors in innovation

Counted

Arawole

2015

J Innov Entrep

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One of the biggest news stories in the past decade has been the increasing impact of the internet and information technology on young people, from first-generation mission countries in North America and Western Europe to the global south-particularly in Africa. This advancement has fueled the growth of a "connected" and "plugged in" cohort of young people known as millennials, who are utilizing this medium to improve their social status and create potential for economic and professional growth. However, while the Internet has created opportunities for growth and development on the continent, many online platforms and services continue to restrict full access to certain parts of the global south. Hence, in some African countries, for example, opportunities for scaling innovation and development can be very difficult to access. Consequently, as our daily activities sync with technology, concerns over access to the Internet economy and the undue restrictions over internet services persist. Using the storytelling research methodology, this paper seeks to highlight why geo-restrictions and regional lockouts over internet-related services seem to be a major challenge for millennials in Africa, who are actors in innovation by virtue of their contribution to the growth of the internet technology. We argue that this enforced regional lockout not only deflates the productivity and creativity of African millennials, but also points to a functionalist view of internet inequality constituted through the "divides" of accessibility, censored participation, and acceptability in the internet economy. Understanding the staggering nature of this problem would require telling the stories of young internet entrepreneurs and innovators in Africa, who continue to be marginalized while investing and contributing to the internet economy.

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Sizing Up Information Societies: Toward a Better Metric for the Cultures of ICT Adoption

Cited by 27 publications

References 23 publications

Information Societies or “ICT Equipment Societies?” Measuring the Digital Information-Processing Capacity of a Society in Bits and Bytes

Information Societies or “ICT Equipment Societies?” Measuring the Digital Information-Processing Capacity of a Society in Bits and Bytes

Linking generativity and disruptive innovation to conceptualize ICTs

‘We are connected, but constrained’: internet inequality and the challenges of millennials in Africa as actors in innovation

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