WIA Report

In many parts of the world, the most well-developed information infrastructure is
supported by libraries. A country’s national library typically houses information on legislation, historical archives, patents, and sometimes court and tax records. University libraries store information on research and are often a gateway to international information services. But not all library portals are created equal. (more…)

Book publishing is big business in rich countries, and book production in developing nations is a fraction of that in developed nations. Yet there has been impressive growth in the amount of cultural content online in poor countries. (more…)

Three quarter’s of the world’s national libraries have an internet presence. But of the 165 countries researched, a quarter had no working website. One-third of the working websites load in English, and over two thirds of the working websites offer english translations of the content. Experts estimate that at most 20 percent of the world’s population speaks English. (more…)

Over the last 10 years, nearly 10,000 civic groups in 152 countries around the world have asserted a digital presence. More than twice as many civic groups came online between 2000-04 as came online between 1995-99. (more…)

In developed countries, many people have Internet access at home, at work, at public libraries and at school. But in many of the largest cities in the developing world, exposure to the World Wide Web comes from commercial Internet access points and cybercafés. (more…)

Many of us have seen lively cybercafés in cities around the world, full of young people playing games. We know that richer countries have more Internet users and poorer countries have fewer Internet users. Surprisingly however, in many of the commercial Internet access points we canvassed, game playing in developing cities was not as popular a use of time as it was in the cities of more advanced economies. (more…)