The Sir Tim Berners-Lee World Wide Web Foundation has compiled its latest global index list, analysing the the political and social impact the web has on 61 country’s. Having collected data over the past 5 years, countries were scored on on seven different categories:
1.Communications infrastructure – the state and availability of web-enabling infrastructure 2.Institutional infrastructure – education, laws, regulation and censorship
3.Web content – what relevant and useful content is available
4.Web use – the extent to which the web is used in a country
5.Political impact
6.Economic impact
7.Social impact
The system produced some interesting results including the fact that only one in three people are currently online and using the web globally and that this figure drops to one in six in Africa. Iceland has the greatest web access with 95% of its population using the web. After Analysing the data the index team noted that around 30% of countries face moderate to severe government restrictions to access to the web.
WEB INDEX TOP 10
1.Sweden
2.United States
3.United Kingdom
4.Canada
5.Finland
6.Switzerland
7.New Zealand
8.Australia
9.Norway
10.Ireland
WEB INDEX BOTTOM 10
1.Nepal
2.Cameroon
3.Mali
4.Bangladesh
5.Namibia
6.Ethiopia
7.Benin
8.Burkino Faso
9.Zimbabwe
10.Yemen
Sir Tim Berners-Lee explained why he thought such an index was important: “By shining a light on the barriers to web for everyone, the index is a powerful tool that will empower individuals, government and organisations to improve their societies.”
More free web access is a good thing, Yak Out!