Measuring DAC for formulating strategies and increasing developmental impact

MEASURING DAC FOR FORMULATING STRATEGIES AND

INCREASING DEVELOPMENTAL IMPACT

Mansour Farah, Consultant on ICT4D

Regional Workshop on “ICT indicators from Strategy to Impact”

Sharm ElSheikh, Egypt, 8-9 June 2012

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Topics

1. Introduction2. Multilingual digital content measurement3. Proposed set of DAC indicators4. Levels of DAC development5. The way forward

8 June 2012 M. Farah - Measuring DAC

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Introduction


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Digital content• Digital content: data, information and knowledge available

on digital media, mainly online• Various forms: text, charts, maps, animations, images,

audio, video, ...• All sectors: government, education, trade & commerce,

health, media, culture, entertainment, tourism, etc…• Content generation through a variety of ICT tools &

applications and in all fields, at increasingly rapid rates, with instant dissemination

• Convergence and integration of news, publications, TV, radio, music and cinema, in a digital world


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Importance of measuring content• The digital divide is essentially a content divide• Need to compare various countries, regions,

economies and cultures with respect to digital content• Need to formulate evidence-based development

policies and comprehensive strategies for reducing the digital divide

• Need to measure progress in implementing policies and strategies and attaining objectives, including digital content development goals


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Measuring multilingual content


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Difficulties in measuring content

• No digital content indicators included in the internationally agreed “Core ICT Indicators”

• Data regarding digital content spreads widely on the Internet and requires special tools to extract

• The multilingual, multimodal, multisectoral and multifunctional nature of content renders measurement an elaborate task

• Each form/type of digital content may require specific indicators and methodologies



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Top Ten Languages Used in the Web

8 June 2012

Top 10 Languagesin the Internet

Internet Users by Language

Internet Penetration by Language

Growth in Internet (2000 - 2011)

Internet Users % of Total

World Population for this Language – (2011)

English 565,004,126 43.4 % 01.4 % 26.8 % 1,302,275,670Chinese 509,965,013 37.2 % 1,478.7 % 24.2 % 1,372,226,042Spanish 164,968,742 39.0 % 807.4 % 7.8 % 423,085,806Japanese 99,182,000 78.4 % 110.7 % 4.7 % 126,475,664Portuguese 82,586,600 32.5 % 990.1 % 3.9 % 253,947,594German 75,422,674 79.5 % 174.1 % 3.6 % 94,842,65Arabic 65,365,400 18.8 % 2,501.2 % 3.3 % 347,002,991French 59,779,525 17.2 % 398.2 % 3.0 % 347,932,305Russian 59,700,000 42.8 % 1,825.8 % 3.0 % 139,390,205Korean 39,440,000 55.2 % 107.1 % 2.0 % 71,393,34Top 10 Lang. 1,615,957,333 36.4 % 421.2 % 82.2 % 4,442,056,069Rest of Lang. 350,557,483 14.6 % 588.5 % 17.8 % 2,403,553,891World Total 2,099,926,965 30.3 % 481.7 % 100.0 % 6,930,055,15

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htmM. Farah - Measuring DAC

http://www.internetworldstats.com/languages.htm

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats17.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugese_language


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corean_language

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm


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Proposed set of DAC indicators


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Previous work on e-content indicators

• A number of international and regional organisations worked on digital content and proposed indicators, including ESCWA, ITU, OECD, UNCTAD and UNESCO

• Measurements of digital content can also be found in WSIS literature, particularly follow-up documents

• UN-ESCWA and ITU-ARO suggested indicators specific to digital Arabic content (DAC)

• No core or comprehensive set of indicators for digital content or DAC was agreed on internationally or regionally


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Proposed set of DAC indicators• A compilation of existing suggestions for digital content

indicators was carried out, focusing on DAC• General digital content indicators were adapted to the Arabic

content and indicators with similarities combined• Generic indicators that do not relate directly to digital

content were removed• Additional important indicators were introduced• Five categories of indicators were identified:

– DAC volume– Usage and users– Types and forms– Enabling environment– Sectoral development


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Volume indicators• Number of DAC sites in the top 1000 Internet sites (ITU)• Percentage/Proportion of DAC (Web pages) to the total

content on the Internet (ITU, ESCWA, WSIS)• Proportion of Wikipedia articles in Arabic per 1 million

Arabic speakers (ESCWA, ITU, WSIS)• Proportion of DAC to the total content of the country

under the ccTLD (ESCWA)• Number of registered national and regional (Arabic,

non-Arabic) domain names per 1000 inhabitants (ESCWA)


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Usage indicators• Consumption levels of digital content by Arabic speaking

users and Arab countries (ITU)• Percentage/Proportion of Arabic language speakers

accessing DAC (ESCWA, ITU, WSIS)• Percentage of Arabic Web sites visited in a country to

the top 100 Web sites visited (ESCWA)• Percentage of Arabic language use on social networking

at regional level (ESCWA)• Number of Arabic domain name registrations for each

Arab ccTLD, weighed up by population (ESCWA, OECD, WSIS)


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Types and forms indicators• Number of online Arabic newspapers per 1 million

residents per Arab country and region (OECD)• Number of streaming online Arabic radio stations per 1

million residents per Arab country and region (OECD)• Number of Flickr photos Arabic-tagged per 1 000

residents per Arab country and region (OECD)• Number of YouTube uploads Arabic-tagged per 1 000

residents per Arab country and region (OECD)• Number of Arabic Blogs per country and region (OECD)• Number of Arabic tweets per country and region (OECD)


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Enabling environment indicators

• Existence of national initiatives for promoting DAC in a country (ESCWA)

• Existence of cyber laws related to digital content in Arab countries (ESCWA)

• Existence of a registered Arabic ccTLD (ESCWA)

• Cost of access to digital content, 1Mb/s per Month (ITU)


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Sectoral development indicators

• Number of Arabic search engines (ESCWA)• Number of digital content enterprises and

institutions per Arab country and region• Number of DAC incubators/incubatees/startups per

country and region• Number of DAC workers per Arab country and

region• Number of Arabic Web pages generated per

application domain (e-government, e-business, e-learning, e-health, etc), country and region


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Levels of DAC Development


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Stages of ICT/content development

8 June 2012

Level of ICT &

Content Dev.

Activity

Time

Readiness- Awareness- Infrastructure- Digital Divide

Uptake- Demand- Usage- Use Divide

Impact- Economic Development Goals- Social Development Goals

Availability- Supply

M. Farah - Measuring DAC

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Measurements in stages

• Most proposed indicators provide measurement for readiness, availability and uptake

• Values of these indicators in a country help determine the stage it has attained regarding DAC

• Sectoral development indicators contribute to measuring impact

• Other indicators need to be devised later to measure economic and social impact


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The way forward


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What next? (1)

• Any strategy for DAC development should be devised taking into account values for these indicators

• Very little data is available• Need for international/regional adoption of e-

content/DAC indicators, followed by national adoption

• Systematic and periodic collection of required indicators should be carries out nationally, regionally and globally


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What next? (2)

• Database of DAC indicators needs to be devised at the regional level and updated periodically

• Analytical studies for the development of DAC and based on the indicators database should be carried out at national and regional levels

• More impact related indicators could be devised at a later stage as experience is gained and the data is accumulated


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References• Bruegge, C. (2011), Measuring Digital Local Content, OECD Digital Economy

Papers, No. 188, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kg0s294n9kf-en• ECOSOC (2012), Report of the Partnership on Measuring Information and

Communication Technology for Development, UN Statistical Commission, Forty-third session 28 February-2 March 2012

• ESCWA (2009), Impact of ICT on Community Development in ESCWA Member Countries, E/ESCWA/ICTD/2009/15

• ESCWA (2011), Regional profile of the information society in Western Asia, 2011, E/ESCWA/ICTD/2011/4

• ITU (2012), Digital Arabic Content Background Paper, Connect Arab Summit, 5-7 March 2012, Doha, Qatar

• ITU(2012), Final Summit Communiqué, Connect Arab Summit, 5-7 March 2012, Doha, Qatar

• UNCTAD (2011), Measuring the Impacts of Information and Communication Technology for Development, UNCTAD/DTL/STICT/2011/1


http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kg0s294n9kf-en

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Thank [email protected]


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Measuring DAC for formulating strategies and increasing developmental impact