E-readiness - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

E-Readiness is the ability to use information and communication technologies

Information and communication technologies

Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...

(ICT) to develop one's economy and to foster one's welfare.

There are several benchmarking indices at the macro (also called global, universal, etc.) level, e.g., those calculated by the UNPAN

UNPAN

The United Nations Public Administration Network mission statement is to promote the sharing of knowledge, experiences and best practices throughout the world in sound public policies, effective public administration and efficient civil services, through capacity-building and cooperation among the...

, World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, Economist Intelligence Unit

Economist Intelligence Unit

The Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...

etc.

Because what appear on the macro level can hide wide heterogeneity among organizations (educational institutions, government departments, etc.) local areas (cities, towns, etc.) individuals (female, individuals with disabilities, etc.) in digital access, a micro level more detailed benchmarking is suggested to compute sub-measures for networking, applications, web-accessibility and readiness (NAWAR).

E-Readiness indices at the macro level are constructed primarily for ranking countries, facilitating comparisons between countries and over time. They can also be used to track the global digital divide

Digital divide

The Digital Divide refers to inequalities between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies and Internet connectivity and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information...

, i.e. the gap between countries that have access to ICT and those that do not (mainly because of differences in income, education, etc.).

NAWAR is constructed primarily to measure how ICT is actually put to work for development. For example, NAWAR is concerned with the gap between humans with respect to natural / assistive access to ICT in e-business environments, i.e., whether organizations have assistive systems (e.g. Braille keyboards and printers, one-handed keyboards, annotated websites for screen reading software, etc.) and whether organizational cultures adopt green computing

Green computing

Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. In the article Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, San Murugesan defines the field of green computing as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers,...

. More importantly, because NAWAR is concerned with how ICT is actually put to work for development, attention is given to change in the level of activity, i.e. the move from e-readiness to impact in e-business environments.

Economist Intelligence Unit e-readiness rankings

Each year, in cooperation with the IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

Institute for Business Value

The is a business research organization that focuses on managerial and economic issues faced by companies and governments around the world. It has offices in China, India, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, South Africa and The United States, and It publishes between 35 and 50 major studies each...

, the Economist Intelligence Unit

Economist Intelligence Unit

produces a ranking of e-readiness across countries, based on six pillars of e-readiness: connectivity & technology infrastructure, business environment, social & cultural environment, legal environment, government policy & vision and consumer & business adoption.

In the 2008 e-readiness rankings, global e-readiness improved for the fourth year in a row, from 6.2 in 2007 to 6.4 in 2008 (out of 10). With Denmark falling from 1st to 5th place, the USA now ranks 1st, Hong Kong 2nd, Sweden 3rd and Australia 4th. The number of countries and territories included in the EIU e-readiness rankings has increased from 68 in 2006 to 70 in 2008, with the inclusion of Malta (2007) and Trindad & Tobago (2008).
In the 2009 e-readiness rankings, global e-readiness fell partly due to fall in the global economy in the later part of 2008. In addition, the report started to cover ICT usage, which better reflected how countries are using ICT effectively.

Rank 2009	2008	2007	2006	Country	e-readiness score (out of 10) 2009	2008	2007	2006
1	5	1	1	Denmark	8.87	8.83	8.88	9.00
2	3	2	4	Sweden	8.67	8.85	8.85	8.74
3	7	8	6	Netherlands	8.64	8.74	8.50	8.60
4	11	12	11	Norway	8.62	8.60	8.35	8.35
5	1	2	2	United States	8.60	8.95	8.85	8.88
6	4	9	8	Australia	8.45	8.83	8.46	8.50
7	6	6	13	Singapore	8.35	8.74	8.60	8.24
8	2	4	10	Hong Kong	8.33	8.91	8.72	8.36
9	12	13	9	Canada	8.33	8.49	8.30	8.37
10	13	10	7	Finland	8.30	8.42	8.43	8.55
11	16	14	14	New Zealand	8.21	8.28	8.19	8.19
12	9	5	3	Switzerland	8.15	8.67	8.61	8.81
13	8	7	5	United Kingdom	8.14	8.68	8.59	8.64
14	10	11	14	Austria	8.02	8.63	8.39	8.19
15	22	22	19	Early Modern France	7.89	7.92	7.77	7.86
16	19	17	23	Republic of China	7.86	8.05	8.05	7.51
17	14	19	12	Germany	7.85	8.39	8.00	8.34
18	21	21	16	Republic of Ireland	7.84	8.03	7.86	8.09
19	15	16	18	South Korea	7.81	8.34	8.08	7.90
20	20	20	17	Belgium	7.71	8.04	7.90	7.99
21	17	15	20	Bermuda	7.71	8.22	8.15	7.81
22	18	18	21	Japan	7.69	8.08	8.01	7.77
23	23	24	-	Malta	7.46	7.78	7.56	-
24	28	28	27	Estonia	7.28	7.10	6.84	6.71
25	26	26	24	Spain	7.24	7.46	7.29	7.34
26	25	25	25	Italy	7.09	7.55	7.45	7.14
27	24	23	22	Israel	7.09	7.61	7.58	7.59
28	27	27	26	Portugal	6.86	7.38	7.14	7.07
29	29	29	28	Slovenia	6.63	6.93	6.66	6.43
30	32	30	31	Chile	6.49	6.57	6.47	6.19
31	31	31	32	Czech Republic	6.46	6.68	6.32	6.14
32	38	41	38	Lithuania	6.34	6.03	5.78	5.45
33	30	32	29	Greece	6.33	6.72	6.31	6.42
34	35	33	30	United Arab Emirates	6.12	6.09	6.22	6.32
35	33	34	32	Hungary	6.04	6.30	6.16	6.14
36	36	39	36	Slovakia	6.02	6.06	5.84	5.65
37	37	37	39	Latvia	5.97	6.03	5.88	5.30
38	34	36	37	Malaysia	5.87	6.16	5.97	5.60
39	41	40	34	Poland	5.80	5.83	5.80	5.76
40	40	38	39	Mexico	5.73	5.88	5.86	5.30
41	39	35	35	South Africa	5.68	5.95	6.10	5.74
42	42	43	41	Brazil	5.42	5.65	5.45	5.29
43	43	42	45	Turkey	5.34	5.64	5.61	4.77
44	49	46	43	Jamaica	5.33	5.17	5.05	4.67
45	44	44	42	Argentina	5.25	5.56	5.40	5.27
46	50	-	-	Trinidad and Tobago	5.14	5.07	-	-
47	48	48	44	Kingdom of Bulgaria	5.11	5.19	5.01	4.86
48	45	45	49	Kingdom of Romania	5.07	5.46	5.32	4.44
49	47	49	47	Thailand	5.00	5.22	4.91	4.63
50	53	52	54	Jordan	4.92	5.03	4.77	4.22
51	46	46	46	Saudi Arabia	4.88	5.23	5.05	5.03
52	58	53	51	Colombia	4.84	4.71	4.69	4.25
53	51	51	49	Peru	4.75	5.07	4.83	4.44
54	55	55	56	Philippines	4.58	4.90	4.66	4.41
55	52	50	48	Venezuela	4.40	5.06	4.89	4.47
56	56	56	57	Mainland China	4.33	4.85	4.43	4.02
57	57	58	55	Egypt	4.33	4.81	4.26	4.30
58	54	54	53	India	4.17	4.96	4.66	4.04
59	59	57	52	Russia	3.98	4.42	4.27	4.14
60	63	59	58	Ecuador	3.97	4.17	4.12	3.88
61	62	62	60	Nigeria	3.89	4.25	3.92	3.69
62	61	60	61	Ukraine	3.85	4.31	4.02	3.62
63	60	61	59	Sri Lanka	3.85	4.35	3.93	3.75
64	65	65	66	Vietnam	3.80	4.03	3.73	3.12
65	68	67	62	Indonesia	3.51	3.59	3.39	3.39
66	64	63	67	Pakistan	3.50	4.10	3.79	3.03
67	67	66	63	Algeria	3.46	3.61	3.63	3.32
68	70	69	65	Iran	3.43	3.18	3.08	3.15
69	66	64	64	Kazakhstan	3.31	3.89	3.78	3.22
70	69	68	68	Azerbaijan	2.97	3.29	3.26	2.92