Measuring the Web’s Global Impact

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:03:40 -0400
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The Web is one of the most important technical innovations of our generation. It has changed the way we communicate, learn, shop, do business, and entertain ourselves. The Web is still evolving, becoming more ubiquitous and smarter, and will probably be a driving force in the development of our lives and societies for the coming decades. The Web is an artifact that we all have helped to create: the engineers who design the underlying computing, communication, and software infrastructure, the startups and businesses that develop use cases and applications and the billions of users who create content and serve as perpetual beta testers.

The World-Wide Web Foundation has launched the Web Index as a multi-dimensional measure of the Web’s growth, utility and impact on people and nations. It covers 61 countries with indicators assessing the political, economic and social impact of the Web along with metrics of Web connectivity and infrastructure.

The W3F explains why they have created the index this way.

"Much of the Web research that exists today measures quantifiable metrics, such as the number of Web users, speed of access to the Web, the number of broadband subscribers, or covers particular single-dimensions such as economic impact or censorship. Tim Berners-Lee recognized that in order to better measure progress to developing a more open and meaningful Web, and for the Web to attain its full potential as a transformative tool that can improve living standards, reduce conflict and improve governance and well-being, it is important to understand how the Web impacts social, developmental, economic and political dimensions as well. By compiling data across many different dimensions of Web health and making it freely available, the Web Index will help deepen and broaden our understanding of how countries can maximise the impact of this powerful tool. The results can be utilized by decision makers across the public and private sectors, as well as academia, NGOs, and the technology industry itself."

The Web index measures and ranks countries along three dimensions:

"Web Readiness: The Index examines the quality and extent of Communications Infrastructure (facilitating connectivity to the Web) and Institutional Infrastructure (policies regulating Web access and skill and educational levels enabling the full benefit of the Web).

Web Use: The Index looks both at Web usage within countries (such as the percentage of individuals who use the Internet) and the content available to these Web users.

The Impact of the Web: The Index uses social, economic and political indicators to evaluate the impact of the Web on these dimensions. This includes measures of social networks, business internet use and e-participation."

The Web index is based on an impressive collection of data (available for downloading, including an RDF linked data version) and some thoughtful analysis. The site is well worth exploring.