5 LIRNEasia Researchers Presenting at Digital Opportunity Forum, Korea

Posted by Divakar Goswami on August 23, 2006 / 2 Comments

At the upcoming Digital Opportunity Forum organized by KADO (Korean Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion) and the ITU being held in Seoul, Korea, five researchers from LIRNEasia have been invited to present. Rohan Samarajiva will be giving the keynote speech on Bridging the Divide: Building Asia-Pacific Capacity for Effective Reforms and will act as the Chairman of the Forum. Rohan’s comments at the close of the First Day are included as well as the powerpoint from his keynote (also available at DOF site): SamarajivaBridgingAug06.ppt

As part of LIRNEasia‘s ongoing research on the Six Country Indicators Project, lead researchers working on assessing ICT sector performance and analysing the reform process in India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Philippines wil make their presentation on the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) applied to their respective countries. Payal Malik will make a presentation on the Policy Implications from the DOI analysis of India; Divakar Goswami will present on DOI Applied to Indonesia: Assessing ICT Policy & Regulatory Environment; Joseph Wilson will present on Digital Opportunities in Pakistan: An Overview and Lorraine Salazar will present on The Case of the Philippines. Papers, powerpoint presentations and conference report will be made available shortly. The DOF program is available here.
Along with exploring international cooperation in ICTs development, the Forum will focus on further developing the DOI composite index recently unveiled in the World Information Society Report 2006. There have been a number of initiatives to develop indices that allow cross-country comparison of ICT development. With the Digital Opportunity Index, however, we have a composite index that has the widest coverage of any of the other indices (180 countries); a modular design that allows specific aspects of ICT development to be measured; and most importantly, it has a relatively small number of indicators that makes collection of data more feasible. Furthermore, the DOI basket of ICT indicators provides not only traditional measures of infrastructure but also offers insights on ICT affordability and utilization, which are crucial components for measuring progress in bridging the digital divide. Despite its robustness, the DOI has scope for improvement, as some of the above papers explore in greater detail.

2 Comments

Sriganesh Lokanathan
August 30, 2006, 6:59 pm
Coverage in Lanka Business Online:

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?newsID=1229002750&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=5
Lokanathan
October 15, 2006, 11:58 am
LIRNEasia\’s very own Divakar Goswami was awarded one of three DOF awards for the best case studies presented at the 2006 DOF. Let me join the rest of the LIRNEasia folks in saying Congratulations!

http://www.dof.or.kr/html2/award_002.asp