ITU Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)

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DOI : a Users' Guide

In line with the WSIS goals, many nations are designing their strategy for the creation of the Information Society and the role of ICTs in their economic and social development, taking into account the specific needs and circumstances of each country. Monitoring implementation is essential to ensure that countries promote a broad-based take-up of ICTs and build an inclusive Information Society. Monitoring and measurement using indices helps identify the full impact of policies, so policy-makers can learn from more successful policies and avoid ineffective measures.

The Digital Opportunity Index is the only e-index based solely on internationally agreed ICT indicators. This makes it a valuable tool for benchmarking the most important indicators for measuring the Information Society. The DOI is a standard tool that governments, operators, development agencies, researchers and others can use to measure the digital divide and compare ICT performance within and across countries. It can be used to enrich policy and inform policy-makers of the latest trends and impact analysis of ICT policies to identify successful policies and replicate them elsewhere.

More about the DOI methodology

The first Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society called for the creation of a composite Digital Opportunity Index. In considering what such an index should comprise, it is useful to think about what digital opportunity means. In an ideal world, digital opportunity would mean:

The whole population having easy access to ICTs at affordable prices;
All homes equipped with ICT devices;
All citizens having mobile ICT devices; and
Everyone using broadband.

Presentations and background papers from the

Digital Opportunity Forum

Seoul, 31 August - 1 September 2006

Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)

Introducing the DOI
by Phillippa Biggs, Economist at SPU, ITU, Switzerland

World Information Society Report 2006
by Tim Kelly, Head at SPU, ITU, Switzerland

Development of DOI based Policy Tool
    by Cheong-Moon Cho, Director at Korean Agency for Digital
    Opportunity and Promotion, the Republic of Korea

The Digital Opportunity Index as a tool for policy analysis
     by Michael Minges, Senior Market Analyst at Telecommunication
     Management Group, INC, USA