Pathway to Peace through the
Digital Divide
Laura Mueller-SoppartCapstone Fall 2013
Economic Stability & Peace
John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of Peace, 1920
What is the Digital Divide?
gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities
Why the Internet Matters
• 3.4% of GDP in top 70% global economy stimulated by Internet activity
• 2.9% of global GDP • $1.7 trillion economic contribution
• If the Internet were a sector it would outweigh agriculture and utilities
• Internet contribution to GDP growth has been an average 21% in mature countries over the past 5 years
• SMEs with high web index have experienced 2.1x growth over the last 3 years
• Less than 1/3 of surveyed SMEs have high web index
Bridging the Digital Divide
Internet maturity correlates with a rising standard of living
Economic Impact of Electrification
Economic Impact of Electrification
Importance of Standardization
• Universal standards allow the electric grid to act as one machine
• Increases economies of scale • Keeps prices low • Allows quicker global adoption
• International and national associations created• Negotiate standards• Share patents • Learn best practices • Engage with government agencies
• Standardization stops at regulating consumption
Energy Poverty ≠ Peace
Only ½ of primary students in Abu Hasheem, a small south-eastern state in Sudan, received passing grades on their exams in 2007. That number increased to 100 percent after the Sudan Multi Donor Fund-National sponsored a project to provide solar power to the community
Demand for Internet
In Sri Lanka, 76.6 percent of the population has electricity access; yet, there are 81 active mobile phones per 100 people
Demand for Internet
Risks of Unmet Demand
• Unmet economic potential • 10% broadband penetration increase add
0.9 to 1.5 percentage points to per capita GDP growth
• Education & Health gap continues to grow • Online education • Disease outbreak maps
• Information is powerful • Amount of data produced in one day in 2013
is greater than all data stored before 2012 • Economic decisions are based on
information on a micro and macro level
Abundance Peace
Literature Review
• John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of Peace, 1920
• Nicholas Carr, The Big Switch, 2008
• Future Authors of the early 1900s
• Vinton Cerf, Internet Freedom Declaration
• OECD, Understanding the Digital Divide, 2001
• McKinsey Global Institute, Why the Internet Matters, 2011
• Google, Digital Summit, 2013
Conclusions
• The digital divide is not sustainable because of the importance of the Internet in modern society
• Electrification efforts are continuously unhinged, the world operates on the assumption that energy will always be available
• Information power will eclipse in importance, and all deserve to assume that information will always be available
• As witnesses with electricity, economies of scale and standardization are key lowering pricing and expanding networks
• Next steps are to develop policy recommendations that also analyze the other components of peace and the Internet