[LINK] Telefónica "Index of Digital Life"

[Stephen Loosley]

http://indexdigitallife.telefonica.com


This month the South American telecommunications giant Telefónica released the "Telefónica Index of Digital Life." 

This is the most comprehensive Global Index of Digital Life ever developed. 

The Index measures how different countries and their citizens are progressing towards both a Digital Economy and a Digital Society, which can be referred to jointly as Digital Life. 

The Index specifically explores the Digital Life of 34 countries worldwide through three sub indexes:

* DIGITAL OPENNESS: How openly infrastructure facilitates information access and information flows. It does this by looking at internet freedom and openness and availability of digital public services.

* DIGITAL CONFIDENCE: How willingly and confidently individuals and organisations engage with the digital infrastructure and with the digital world. This is assessed through digital adoption, privacy and security indicators.

* DIGITAL ENTREPRENERSHIP: How readily citizens and organisations economic activities prosper in the digital environment. Readiness is weighed by the development of digital literacy, digital businesses, innovation and finance.

 
AUSTRALIA

This new study has ranked Australia third in a list of countries that have adopted digitalisation rapidly.

It also found Australians are the best at using technology securely and adopting privacy measures out of the 34 countries examined.

The digital life report, commissioned by South American telecommunications giant Telefonica, examined the way citizens of various countries have embraced digital tools, rather than measuring the technological infrastructure. 

The report builds Australia's reputation as a tech leader.

The report found that compared with the Asia-Pacific region, Australia is the best performer in internet freedom, e-government, online course enrolment, social media usage, use of virtual network and open platform use.

Young Australians aged between 18-34 have the most positive attitude toward education, entrepreneurial opportunities and informal finance in the region.

http://www.skynews.com.au/tech/technews/2016/07/18/australians-fast-adopters-of-digital-tech.html



Quoting the report itself:   See: http://indexdigitallife.telefonica.com/australia/

Australia

Australia exhibits the strongest performance in the region, excelling in all aspects of Digital Life. 

In relation to GDP, its Digital Confidence is the best among all the 34 TIDL countries.

Its privacy and security is the best among all the 34 TIDL countries along with digital literacy

Within the region, it performs best in internet freedom, Mobile OS market openness, e-government, e-education in online course enrollment, social media usage, use of virtual network and open platform use. Its young population (18-34 age group) has the most positive attitude toward education, entrepreneurial opportunities, and informal finance.

However, this does not mean there is room for complacency, as Australia’s ISP market openness are less competitive than in Japan and its software spending trails behind South Korea and China. In Digital Entrepreneurship, the attitudes toward innovation among 18-34 years old citizens are less positive than in China and India. Given Australia’s all-round strengths, it should probably pursue balanced policies, with attention paid to balanced development of both market openness and nurturing entrepreneurship. However, Australia would probably be able to extract more output from its traditional strengths in innovation by focusing specifically on further strengthening its startup and scale-up ecosystems. This is the domain where Australia received its lowest sub-index score. Emphasis is also consistent with the Australian Government’s recent policy emphasis on strengthening entrepreneurship.