The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production. Issue 12 (2nd December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ojanperä, Sanna; Graham, Mark; Zook, Matthew
• Is Part Of: Journal of development studies. Volume 55:Issue 12(2019)
• Page Start: 2626
• Page End: 2643
• Publication Date: 2019-12-02
• Subjects: Economic development -- Periodicals; Economic history -- 1945- -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; Développement économique -- Périodiques; Histoire économique -- 1945- -- Périodiques; Pays en voie de développement -- Conditions économiques -- Périodiques; 338.91
• DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2018.1554208
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0388

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We propose the construction of a Digital Knowledge Economy Index, quantified by way of measuring content creation and participation through digital platforms, namely the code sharing platform GitHub, the crowdsourced encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and Internet domain registrations and estimating a fifth sub-index for the World Bank Knowledge Economy Index for year 2012. This approach complements conventional data sources such as national statistics and expert surveys and helps reflect the underlying digital content creation, capacities, and skills of the population. An index that combines traditional and novel data sources can provide a more revealing view of the status of the world's digital knowledge economy and highlight where the (un)availability of digital resources may actually reinforce inequalities in the age of data.