Anne-Rivers Forcke Digital Inclusion

The World Database of ...Digital Inclusion?

The World Database of Happiness. We need this. As we cross into the second half of 2007, it's possible that we need this database more than any other single thing we might discover, invent or report publicly.

The fact that there is a project in this world that's actually measuring - or at least attempting to measure - "Happiness" truly astounds me. I'm not sure why. Here at the Second OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy, it seems like just about everything is getting measured: workforce skills, pensions, economic growth, migration, learning outcomes, climate change, potable water, gender differences (other than the obvious), creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and the anomoly of "national progress." This is fabulous! Numbers, numbers everywhere! More importantly, these are numbers being turned into knowledge. Knowledge to help policymakers make better informed decisions about...well... about just about everything.

Certainly somewhere, someone must be measuring Digital Inclusion. After all, we know how much of the global population have access to clean drinking water, electricity, and vaccinations against polio - which is good because water, electricity and (to some extent) basic healthcare are now considered by most of the folks who are keeping track of these things to be "essential." So certainly somewhere, someone must be measuring Digital Inclusion. Shouldn't they be?

I'm sad to report from the last full day of this conference that no one is actually measuring Digital Inclusion. In fact, no one at this particular conference is even talking about Digital Inclusion. Why is that? Water is an essential and we measure it any number of ways; ditto for electricity. Even with really gross stuff like Cox, Sox and Nox emissions, we know how much there is, who produces it, what and whom it affects, when, and where. But when it comes to understanding who is using - or even who CAN use - the information and services which today are being delivered primarily over devices connected to the Internet, there is little being counted and even less being talked out.

As local, regional and national governments continue to embrace, develop and invest in transforming the way they provide information and services to their communities and constituents, they need to understand who is - and even more importantly who is not - reaping the benefits of their transformation. And even though governments must start with collecting this data, they certainly should not end there. Just as important as collecting the data, it's imperative for governments to 1) compile the data into information; 2) consider the information in the context of their policies and programs to generate knowledge; 3) share that knowledge with their communities as well as other governments to begin to define best practices. If we can do it for water, and if we can do it for electricity, surely we are able to do it for the Internet.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm going back to take a look at this World Database of Happiness. Who knows, Maybe one day it will be able to show that the more a government knows about its communities' use of the Internet the happier it is.

K. Anne-Rivers Forcke is Public Sector Market Manager, Human Ability and Accessibility Center, IBM Research. She chairs the Digital Inclusion Roundtable at the W2i Digital Cities Convention.

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