ICTP Digital Divide Simulator

What is the Digital Divide?

The picture below is a map of the so called Digital Access Index (DAI). The DAI measures the overall ability of individuals in a country to access and use Information and Communication Technologies. Introduced first by the International Telecommunication Union, it embrace eight variables organized into five categories. Each variable is converted to an indicator with a value between zero and one by dividing it by the maximum value or "goalpost". Each indicator is then weighted within its category and the resulting category index values are averaged to obtain the overall DAI value. The picture represents thus the Digital Divide (Brecha Digital in Spanish, Fracture numerique in French, Digitale Kluft in German, Divario Digitale in Italian) - that refers to the difference among nations in the ability of accessing global information infrastructures, difference between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not.
Click on the map to read some detailed statistics.

The categories included in DAI are: Infrastructure (number of fixed and mobile subscribers), Affordability (internet access price as percentage of the Gross National Income per capita), Knowledge (adult literacy and school enrolment level), Quality (international bandwidth per capita and broadband subscribers) and Usage (internet users).

Digital Divide Simulator

We have elaborated an on-line simulator with which you can experience browsing the web with low bandwidth and compare it with the bandwidth you are used to.
To make use of it select the website you want to test, then select the bandwidth you want to simulate, and click "simulate". You will be presented with two pages: one at full speed and one at the limited speed. You can then compare the two."