Assesment of the information society and digital divide in the world, comparative analysis of Turkey with European union members.

• Author: Balaban, M. Erdal

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

   The objective of this study is to analyze the ICT data to provide the assessment of information society and the digital divide in the World and the place of Turkey in the World and European Union members when it is compared in terms of ICT development index values. In our previous study, we analyzed the top ten ICT developed countries and top ten dynamic countries in the World by comparing the place of Turkey (Balaban, Cilan, Kaba, 2009). In this study we aim to analyze the position of Turkey in digital divide when it is compared with EU members' average and EU candidate countries. There are many studies to measure information society and digital divide. Therefore the score or levels of Turkey about information society will be compared with world countries, EU members and EU candidates in order to determine the place of Turkey. According to weaknesses of ICT development indicators, some policies can be proposed to reach information society as soon as possible.

   As defined by the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) the term digital refers to "the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomical levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies and to their use of Internet for a wide variety of activities" (OECD, 2001).

   The term 'digital divide' was first used (in the mid 90s) by former Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Larry Irving, Jr. His purpose was to focus public attention on the existing gap in access to information services between those who can afford to purchase the computer hardware and software necessary to participate in the global information network, and low-income families and communities that cannot (Dragulanescu, 2002). Formerly, the term digital divide had been perceived as the differences for having or not having, using or not using, and knowing or not knowing how to use computers and the internet (Tapscott, 1998). Recently, the words 'computers and the internet' have been replaced with 'new forms of information technology,' (Van Dijk, 2006). The digital divide has also been generally defined as the socio-economical difference in the use of ICT (Vehovar et al., 2006). There are two primary dimensions of digital divide: domestic and international. Domestic digital divide refers to a digital divide in a certain country or region, while the international digital divide refers to a gap between regions, countries, or continents. Although indicators used for determining international and domestic digital divide may vary, many common indicators are also used. Other than regions or geographic locations, a digital divide can also occur between genders, ages, education groups, income groups, racial, and ethnic groups (Ono& Zavodny, 2006). In many studies, it is seen that the digital divide negatively affects women, old people, people with low education and with low income, large size families, people living in rural areas, low-skilled persons, and minorities (Chinn & Fairlie, 2004) at the domestic level, and poor or low-income countries at the international level.

   The international digital divide is very significant between underdeveloped, emerging, and developed countries. According to Fuchs and Horak (2008), while Africa has 14.1% of the world population (57countries), it has only 2.3% of internet users (while the world...