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