Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)

The Digital Opportunity Index was a way of measuring access? to ICT. In 2009 it was combined with the ICT Opportunity Index? (ICT-OI) to form the ICT Development Index (IDI).

Description

As described below, it is calculated on a country-by-country basis using several indicators, but apparently does not take localisation into account. It results in a number between 0 and 1 (closer to 1 is better). The DOI for Africa as a whole was 0.20 in 2006 and 0.22 in 2007.

"DOI is a composite index based on 11 core ICT indicators. ... [It] is at present the most extensive ICT index providing an internationally-agreed benchmark of the status of ICTs around the world." (Wikipedia, accessed 2007)

"[T]he Digital Opportunity Index (DOI), ... has been developed by the Digital Opportunity Platform, whose members currently include ITU, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) and the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Republic of Korea." (ITU 2006)

"The DOI was endorsed by the World Summit on the Information Society in the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society (para 117) as a tool for mapping of digital opportunity worldwide." (Wikipedia, accessed 2007)

"The core ICT indicators represent international agreement on the main statistics to be used for analyzing the Information Society. Eleven indicators — of which six have a fixed line orientation and five are geared to mobile — have been selected for the DOI." (ITU 2006)

The indicators include:

1. Percentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony
2. Internet access tariffs as a percentage of per capita income
3. Mobile cellular tariffs as a percentage of per capita income
4. Proportion of households with a fixed line telephone
5. Proportion of households with a computer
6. Proportion of households with Internet access at home
7. Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants
8. Mobile Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants
9. Proportion of individuals that used the Internet
10. Ratio of fixed broadband subscribers to total Internet subscribers
11. Ratio of mobile broadband subscribers to total mobile subscribers

"The DOI has been compiled for 181 economies for a period of three years from 2004-2006. An even longer time series for 62 leading economies for the period 2000-2006 is also available." (ITU)

References

• International Telecommunications Union (ITU). 2006. World Information Society Report 2006. Geneva: ITU. http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2006/wisr-web.pdf
  • Pages 108-109, including tables on Africa, from the 2006 report https://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2006/Africa.pdf
• ______. 2007. World Information Society Report 2007. Geneva: ITU. https://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/WISR07_full-free.pdf
  • Chapter 3, "The Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)," in the 2007 report https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/doi/material/WISR07-chapter3.pdf
• ______. (no date). "What is the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)?" ITU website, https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/doi/index.html (accessed 21 July 2019)
• Peña-López, Ismael. 2009. "Digital Opportunity Index" ICTlogy (blog), March 2009. https://ictlogy.net/wiki/index.php?title=Digital_Opportunity_Index
• Wikipedia, "International Telecommunication Union: Digital Opportunity Index," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Opportunity_Index#Digital_Opportunity_Index (redirects to ICT Development Index)