Measuring the global information society _ explaining digital inequality by economic level and education standard

5th International Workshop on Mathematical Models and their Applications 2016

Ünver, H.^1

Ulm University, Institute Databases/Artificial Intelligence and Research, Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing/n (FAW/n), Lise-Meitner-Str. 9, Ulm

89081, Germany^1

关键词: Digital inequalities;    Functional relation;    Global information society;    Knowledge-based society;    Large data analysis;    Mobile Internet services;    Mobile phone usages;    Nonlinear functions;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/173/1/012021/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/173/1/012021

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

A main focus of this research paper is to investigate on the explanation of the 'digital inequality' or 'digital divide' by economic level and education standard of about 150 countries worldwide. Inequality regarding GDP per capita, literacy and the so-called UN Education Index seem to be important factors affecting ICT usage, in particular Internet penetration, mobile phone usage and also mobile Internet services. Empirical methods and (multivariate) regression analysis with linear and non-linear functions are useful methods to measure some crucial factors of a country or culture towards becoming information and knowledge based society. Overall, the study concludes that the convergence regarding ICT usage proceeds worldwide faster than the convergence in terms of economic wealth and education in general. The results based on a large data analysis show that the digital divide is declining over more than a decade between 2000 and 2013, since more people worldwide use mobile phones and the Internet. But a high digital inequality explained to a significant extent by the functional relation between technology penetration rates, education level and average income still exists. Furthermore it supports the actions of countries at UN/G20/OECD level for providing ICT access to all people for a more balanced world in context of sustainable development by postulating that policymakers need to promote comprehensive education worldwide by means of using ICT.