A new perspective on the ICT Development Index

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) represents an important structural part of modern society; this is why countries strive for constant progress in ICT and why it draws such significant attention. Bearing this in mind, the main goal of this paper is to present an I-distance methodology that holds a new perspective on the measurement of information development, to compare it to the ICT development index (IDI), and to point out improvements that such methodology provides. IDI combines 11 indicators related to three ICT categories: Access, Use and Skills (by weighting the first two by 40 percent and the third by 20 percent). The approach presented in this study uses the same indicators, synthesizing them into one value. Subsequently, which variables are the most relevant for measuring ICT development level of countries are able to be determined. Consequently, the I-distance method provides useful insight into developing countries and ways that enhance their ranking. The results show that the correlation between the I-distance values and IDI values is very strong, r = 0.961, p < 0.01, which makes I-distance an acceptable measurement method for evaluating countries’ ICT development levels.