E-readiness refers to a country's capacity and state of preparedness to participate in the
electronic world. The state of maturity is commonly measured by the country's
information and communications technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications ( telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
(ICT)
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
and the ability of its government and citizens to use the positive impacts of ICT for
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The ...
.
Measures
The measures to evaluate the electronic preparedness may vary from country to country or even depending on the level of analysis to which one is interested (micro, meso or macro) considering not only the need to recognize the electronic preparedness of the country but also some specific environments/areas.
The common factors that are taken into consideration for measuring e-readiness of a country are:
* Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure.
* Degree of preparedness of a country's government, citizens, businesses and
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s to use ICT for sustainable development.
*
Digital economy rankings
Limitations
* Each of the most widely used e-readiness tools has its own set of measurement criteria and thus a study model needs to be re-designed to be assessed by a certain tool.
* Most e-readiness tools have limitations in terms of flexibility and applicability.
* There is no standardization of measures of the widely existed e-readiness tools.
See also
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e-Government
E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers new ...
*
ICT Development Index
The ICT Development Index (IDI) is an index published by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union based on internationally agreed information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators. This makes it a valuable tool for benchma ...
References
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IT infrastructure