Information Technology for Development is the management of information technology infrastructures to stimulate economic development. The growth of the Internet has opened up new opportunities for companies in the developed world to work with developing countries. Among the most significant of these opportunities is the use of offshore outsourcing strategies that enable access to skill and expertise located in very different parts of the world. This has meant that world economies are becoming increasingly interdependent. To reflect this trend, the field of Information Technology for Development has moved beyond the issues faced by developing countries alone and has become a global phenomenon.
A particular concern is the divide between the people who have access to digital infrastructures and those who do not. A World Bank study found that 90% of the world's Internet subscribers are in countries whose population is 15% of the global total (Dasgupta, Lall, & Wheeler, 2004). In a study of all 178 nations in the world, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) came up with a set of metrics called the Digital Access Index (DAI). The DAI is determined by such factors as education, the affordability of Internet access, the proportion of Internet users with high-speed connections, and the availability of bandwidth (Minges, Gray, & Magpantay, 2003). These analyses suggest that internet access is related to per capita income, allowing people in countries where the per capital income is high to have greater network access than people living in countries with low per capita incomes.
This digital divide has implications for economic growth and the competitiveness of multinationals that source their services offshore, as well as businesses that provide these information technology (IT) services. The key questions that need to be answered are: What exactly constitutes this digital divide? And how can it be monitored? The Orbicom Institute offers a combined set of indicators (infostate) that include access to information and communication technology (ICT) networks and skills (infodensity) and match these by a measurement of what individuals, businesses, and countries do with the ICTs (info-use). This report by George Sciadas and his team (2004) confirms that the magnitude of the digital divide is considerable but finds that the gap is slowly narrowing. While the digital divide is closing, technologies such as Internet use and cell phones keep the gap wide. A close correlation exists between the infostate indicator and per capita GDP in that for every point increase in infodensity, per capita income increases (Sciadas, 2004). It appears from the results of this study that it is access to information, services, and expertise through access to the network, combined with ICT skills that contribute to economic growth and a decrease in this gap.
There is a recognition that, while the gap between digital infrastructures between countries is a real problem facing the world today, the use of IT and the development of related skills