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About 40% of World Population Online, 90% of Offliners In Developing Countries

New submitter lx76 writes: The International Telecommunications Union does research on telecommunications in society worldwide, from cellphones to internet use. Since 2009, on a yearly basis, they've released their research findings in a report called the Measuring Information Society Report. This year's report is over 200 pages long, illustrated with abundant graphs and tables (PDF). It's not a light read. But one of the interesting numbers is an index showing the divide in global connectivity. From the report: "Over the past year, the world witnessed continued growth in the uptake of ICT [Information and Communication Technology] and, by end 2014, almost 3 billion people will be using the Internet, up from 2.7 billion at end 2013..... Despite this encouraging progress, there are important digital divides that need to be addressed: 4.3 billion people are still not online, and 90 per cent of them live in the developing world."

The report continues, "As this report finds, ICT performance is better in countries with higher shares of the population living in urban areas, where access to ICT infrastructure, usage and skills is more favorable. Yet it is precisely in poor and rural areas where ICTs can make a particularly significant impact." Projects like Google's Project Loon have their work cut out for them."

25 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Developing by qbast · · Score: 1

    Do they actually mean developing like "less developed than west Europe, but catching up" or is it just polite euphemism for third-world shitholes that are actually worse than in colonial times?

    1. Re:Developing by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      Look kids, racism!

      No seriously, that's some racist-ass shit. Fuck you, and your imagined colonial past. Things are substantially better now in the vast majority of developing nations than they ever were under colonial control.

      Birth rates are down, death rates are down, education rates are up, diseases are getting eradicated, and assholes like you just want to imagine you know what's best for everyone.

    2. Re: Developing by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, I'm real stung that a racist asshole called me a "SJW".

      Fuck off and take your backwards beliefs with you.

    3. Re:Developing by Artifakt · · Score: 2

      It's not a few that are really developing and a lot that aren't, but the contrary. For example, if you look at how well Nigeria has dealt with the current Ebola crisis, you pretty much have to acknowledge that they have improved a lot since the 1960's. In the same way, Uganda today is not sliding downhill from some Idi Amin glory days, quite the contrary. We could fairly describe a few states as failed - that's not a racist term per say, it's a rational assessment if used correctly, but when people talk about developing nations like 9 of 10 are never going to develop instead of the contrary, that's an abuse of terms like 'developing' and 'failed state'. There's also this meme that foreign aid is just pumping money into corrupt regimes that will never actually improve the lot of their populaces, and again, that's more the exception than the rule.
            There's also a difference in comparing a failed state with a successfully developing one in 21st century terms and comparing it to its colonial past or some general colonial era. You can take the real numbers for famine deaths caused by the British raj in India and Irish potato famine deaths of about the same time, and with fair statistics, nobody should ever complain about anything Stalin did to the USSR again,unless they are prepared to compare Queen Victoria with Hitler and Stalin, to her disfavor. That's your colonial era, without even knowing the figures for Africa and how much they would make the totals worse. Somalia today probably has it about as bad as they did in the colonial era, but not worse. That's bad, a drastically failed state - there's no need to claim that somehow it's even worse than what Belgum did to its colonies or other cases which were unimaginable hells - by the time things get any worse than that, everyone is dead.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    4. Re: Developing by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      SJW bot

      Uh-oh, somebody's upset about ethics in game journalism.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re: Developing by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I hope that at some point in my life I'm lucky enough to have done something that would qualify me as a social justice warrior.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Developing by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I believe qbast is being sarcastic

      What is your evidence that qbast is smart enough to know the meaning of "sarcasm"?

      No one who uses the acronym "SJW" has yet demonstrated that level of intelligence.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re: Developing by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      China would like to speak to you about paper, gunpowder, the printing press, the magnetic compass, and the fork. Amongst other things.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  2. Other priorites by melting_clock · · Score: 2

    There are a lot of people in developing countries without safe drinking water, access to medical care, adequate nutrition and many other serious problems. While it is sometimes difficult for the lucky few in better off countries to understand, they might just be a few things that are more important then having Internet access.

    1. Re:Other priorites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not to Google.
      As soon as they become worth advertising to, Google wants them.

    2. Re:Other priorites by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of people in developing countries without safe drinking water, access to medical care, adequate nutrition and many other serious problems.

      I can drive you through some towns in Texas that are just like that.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Other priorites by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      AC, please. Anybody with five minutes--and the sense that God granted a goose--can see you're attempting to rewrite history in a pretty major fashion.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:Other priorites by dave420 · · Score: 1

      That describes swathes of Los Angeles, too...

  3. All our eggs in one basket? by EzInKy · · Score: 1

    Maybe this is a good thing? Even though I thoroughly enjoy participating in a widely connected world, I do question the wisdom of making being connected a requirement for survival.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  4. developing countries, like the USofA by dltaylor · · Score: 2

    where the AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, ... warlords are protecting their turf and blocking access by rural Americans?

  5. 90% of "people" online are spammers by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    The numbers are actually adjusted for spammers because 90% of the email addresses and blog commenters are spammers, are spammers, are spammers, are spammers...*whack*...

  6. 40% are subsistence farmers by johncandale · · Score: 1

    Considering that 30%~ of the world are subsistence farmers, and 40~%+ are involved in farming I am not surprised. I highly doubt that Sub-Saharan Africa should be worrying about the myth of the digital divide for most of the people there. Or the people that don't use money in central America. I mean 50% of the world eats with their hands. 1st world People have weird priorities sometimes. I hope this group isn't getting any donated money.

    1. Re:40% are subsistence farmers by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Considering that 30%~ of the world are subsistence farmers, and 40~%+ are involved in farming I am not surprised. I highly doubt that Sub-Saharan Africa should be worrying about the myth of the digital divide for most of the people there. Or the people that don't use money in central America. I mean 50% of the world eats with their hands. 1st world People have weird priorities sometimes. I hope this group isn't getting any donated money.

      So were my grandparents, education precedes change. If you formulate it like "What good is Internet going to do for a subsistence farmer?" the answer is not much. Heck, you can say the same about literacy. If you formulate it like "How can we teach you more valuable skills than being a subsistence farmer?" then Internet is a great tool. Industrialized agriculture can easily grow a few extra tons of rice and beans, put them on a container ship and ship to Africa but they can't afford it. Internationally they operate with two limits at $1.25/day and $2/day at purchasing power parity, which generally means even less nominally in poorer countries. So the question is, if they work all day can they do something worth $2 to me? If so can they can stop working as subsistence farmers, work for us and buy their food.

      Of course you can't expect much, they'll probably make Indian workers seem skilled by comparison. The language they know is probably not English. But at least they got a chance of tapping into a huge market where there's a lot of people who from their perspective have a lot of money. And very often there's this one guy who speaks English who can translate and sublet to others, that's how outsourcing to India works. I know that's how many migrant workers do it too, one team/work leader that speaks English most of the rest need translators. It gets the job done, they key is just getting on the lowest level of the ladder where learning more means earning more. The rest will work itself out.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  7. Re:Sign me up for the Basic Plus plan by knightghost · · Score: 1

    Add birth control to the top of that list. Most issues stem from overcrowding.

  8. What counts as online? by RevWaldo · · Score: 1

    Mobile phones are booming in the developing world, and most are capable of SMS, e-mail, mobile cash, and downloading electronic books, if not also web browsing. More people now have access to cell phones than toilets.

    http://time.com/74584/unesco-s...

    .

  9. My mom will be please to know by BenSchuarmer · · Score: 1

    that she's in "the 10%"

  10. How online? by AndyCanfield · · Score: 1

    I read this and immediatly thought of my family. We're in rural Thailand. I gave my son an Android tablet and I provide a wifi Internet connection: he watches cartoons all the time. My wife plays with the tablet sometimes. But neither of them have an e-mail address or any social networking presence. And, frankly, I see no reason why they should. When my wife wants to socially network, she steps outside and talks to the neighbors. When my son wants to network, he goes to school. No Facebook, no Google+, who cares?

    Most of the world lives happily without the Internet.

    1. Re:How online? by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      It's not even limited to the "developing world". My mom is totally offline; no computer, no internet, no cellphone. She does occasionally ask me to order something online that she heard about on the radio, but that's it. My GF isn't much better; she has an email, but doesn't use it much, and no facebook.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  11. Too much of a good thing by tepples · · Score: 1

    ass shit. Fuck

    runs his potty mouth

    Potty mouth?

    Three slang words in a row referring to sexual contact, excretion of body waste, or body parts primarily associated therewith sounds "potty mouth" to me.

    pretends that using profanity is somehow wrong

    An occasional swear is a valuable rhetorical tool. But overuse of "potty mouth" words distracts from the point of the post and makes the speaker sound so uneducated that he can't express a point without bringing up sex or excretion.

  12. Middle East too by tepples · · Score: 1

    China would like to speak to you about paper [etc.]

    Granted. And the Middle East has given us phonemic writing (rebus hieroglyphs), alphabetic writing (starting with the Phoenicians), place value numerals, and algebra. Thus we recognize Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East as sources of science and technology. But what comparable contribution has come out of Africa south of the Sahara?