How
do you describe the importance of the Internet? How about its potential for
communities? That is a question I continue to try and answer after more than 10
years of working in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and rural
development. Studies are beginning to calculate its impact with some results indicating
that the Internet is responsible for 21% of economic growth in developed
nations. Additionally, a study
from the World Bank determines that every10% point increase in penetration of
ICTs can impact economic growth by up to 1.4% for developing countries.
Unfortunately,
in attempts to explain the Internet and its importance, it often
comes across as a magic bullet that is going to solve all of the community’s
problems (something I'm guilty of on
occasion). The natural reaction to this
is a “Build it and they will come” approach by community decision makers and
governments. Many groups work hard to set up Internet infrastructure and access
in a community and then hope for change.
Regrettably,
the Internet is not a magic bullet and to fully realize its benefits,
communities need to do more than just build ICT infrastructure. While building
ICT infrastructure is a critical first step, successful adoption also requires
building digital skills, and most importantly, it requires people actively
using the Internet.
In
2001, I travelled to a northern community in Canada to help update the software
on their community access site only to discover the computer for the access
site was still in the original boxes. The local organization that had agreed to
host the access site was very appreciative of the computer, but explained
matter of fact that they had no idea how to set up the computer, and so it had
remained in the box for six months until I arrived.
More
than 10 years later, the lesson learned from this experience still holds true,
setting communities up with computers and Internet is not the only or final
step in unleashing the potential of the Internet for our rural communities.
E-Ready communities are those communities that are able to take full advantage
of the information society. In my master’s thesis on knowledge planning, I
defined an e-ready community as “a community that provides its residents,
businesses and organizations with the necessary tools and environment to be
successful in the new knowledge-based world” (Kelly,
pg 14).
As
the UN’s International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) describes,
it is the combination of ICT skills and ICT access which enables the use of ICT
and the Internet. In turn, it is using technology that results in communities
taking full advantage of the information society. Another ICT assessment is
built on this model, but Function Four Ltd.’s E-Index focuses on community level rather than national
level measurements of infrastructure, skills and use.
Communities
that want to effectively participate in the information society, to become
e-communities need to address each of these steps of infrastructure, skills and
use to fully realize the benefits of ICT. The ITU and the E-Index provide some
examples of how to determine progress towards effective engagement in the
information society with the ITU focusing on country measurements while the
E-Index concentrates at a community level.
Figure 1 ITU Measuring the Information Society 2011
Infrastructure
and access
The
ITU describes ICT infrastructure and access as the presence and availability of
computers, cell phones, fixed phone lines and Internet within a community.
While the ITU measures fixed phone lines, it acknowledges that they are
becoming less and less important for accessing the Internet and may be removed
from infrastructure measurements in the future. The E-Index, a community ICT
Index that builds locally on the ITU’s efforts, factors in the presence of more
traditional ICTs such as radios and televisions to create an overall measure of
ICT infrastructure and access.
Infrastructure
and access are often measured by ratios of ICT per 100 people to provide a
comparable benchmark between ICTs and between geographies. This type of
measurement also provides helpful context for understanding the importance and
role of ICTs; for example the country of Taiwan has the highest rate of mobile
phones per capita in the world with more than 100 mobile phones per 100 people
meaning that many people have multiple phones.
Communities
wanting to participate more in the information society need to determine which
ICTs are the most beneficial for them and focus on measuring the level of those
ICTs. Access becomes an issue when certain groups or parts of the community
have unequal access to those ICTs due to issues of cost, control or
availability. Recent data
shows that in the US, only 46% of the poorest households have broadband access in the home – that figure jumps to 80% in houses with more
than $50,000 in household income and to 96% for the wealthiest households.
Skills
ICT
skills are also referred to as digital literacy or capacity, typically
referring to the ability to use computers and the Internet. While ideally
measured through surveys or even testing, the ITU and other agencies often use
education enrollments as proxies for ICT skills, measuring capacity through
enrollment rates in secondary and tertiary education. The E-Index uses a tiered
skill tree for each ICT grouping skills into level of difficulty and measuring
survey participant
Communities
are better situated to use surveys and even training requests as indicators of
ICT skills. Determining the level of comfort and expertise with ICTs locally is
an important step in helping to increase and encourage ICT use.
Use
Using
ICTs is the only way for a community to benefit from them and to move towards
becoming e-communities. Computers, cell phones and the Internet provide the
main opportunities for community use. As a result, the ITU focuses its
measurements on these technologies, tallying broadband and cellphone
subscriptions as their main indicators of use. The E-Index on the other hand
focuses on individual time use of technology to help determine a community’s
ICT use profile.
Its
important for communities to understand current use patterns in their community
before trying to focus efforts on a specific ICT or outcome. Is the community
strongly engaged in social media or are the majority of residents focused on
productivity uses such as word processors and spreadsheets. Once communities
know where they are currently in terms of ICT use, it’s much easier to
determine and plan for new goals.
The
first step in any recipe is to make sure you have the all the
ingredients, and both the ITU and E-Index have identified that the necessary
ingredients for engagement in the information society are ICT infrastructure,
skills and use. Providing Computers and broadband alone will not create e-ready
communities, but it is an important step, and the first step in the recipe for
creating communities engaged in the information society.
Sources:
Kelly
(2008). Knowledge Planning, Community Development in the
Knowledge-Based Economy. Thesis,
Brandon University, Brandon.
