Measuring Global Public Access to ICT

[Laurentiu Bunescu]

The Center for Information and Society (CIS) has recently published a document containing a collection of short summary reports for each of the 25 countries included in the Public Access Landscape Study!

The Landscape Study examines how people around the world access and use information and computers in public settings such as public libraries, telecentres and cybercafés. Understanding public access is particularly important in developing countries where there is often limited private access to information and communication technologies (ICT).

This study covers a carefully-selected sample of 25 developing countries containing over 250,000 public access settings. Local research teams surveyed over 25,000 people and conducted interviews and focus groups in order to develop a detailed picture of the public access ICT landscape in each country.

CIS is collecting, interpreting and analyzing these detailed country-level results, and is also conducting cross-country comparative analyses to uncover common themes, challenges and opportunities. The goal of this work is to help strengthen public access to information and ICTs around the world. Click here to see full report or visit the Landscape Study website for more details on research design or to find full country reports.