(Expansion) – Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have influenced the way we communicate, coexist, have fun, learn, work, and the way we conceive of life.
Technological innovations have permeated society in a relatively short period in an unimaginable way and have broken that barrier of distance allowing us to be closer and more informed, about everything that happens in our community and around the world, to such an extent that We no longer even question how we would communicate without technology.
Advances and changes in ICT are almost daily and go hand in hand with progress, both in the economic and social aspects at a local and global level. Although there is still a lot to do. We cannot close or eliminate various inequities that afflict us as a society if we do not eliminate the differences in connectivity and access to information that we still suffer from.
Like any country, for Mexico to achieve its growth and development objectives, it is necessary to have an informed society, with free access to information, and that is also reliable, fast and, so to speak, unlimited.
In addition, the geographical dispersion between the various social sectors should not be an obstacle, on the contrary, it should become a possibility of enrichment, exchange, contribution of knowledge for social progress. And for this it is necessary to constantly measure our information society and know the level of our digital divide, as well as the way in which progress is made in this matter.
Although it is notable that Mexicans have had greater connectivity in recent years, it is also noteworthy that we continue at low levels in this area compared to other countries. A separate issue is the way in which decisions are analyzed and made by State bodies in the absence of deep and constant metrics and thus demonstrate the need for greater access to connectivity, and therefore to information resources for all.
In economic terms, if we do not measure, analyze and act, we generate information gaps that harm the economic operation, impact the development of the sector and, finally, the country. And apparently, the measurement of connectivity is something that we still lag about in Mexico.
For this, the availability of statistical information facilitates the design of digital public policies. A clear example and important effort is the National Survey on the Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Homes prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
But from the public and private spheres, greater efforts must be made to have a more constant and profound diagnosis of access, use habits and application of ICTs among the population.
In this way, it will be possible to determine which are the areas and communities in which a low availability and deployment of infrastructure prevails that limits access and use of connectivity, which, as a consequence, can hinder the focus and effectiveness of public policies to deal with to this same insufficiency of coverage of services to which we all, by right, must have access, since they allow us to advance, both personally and collectively, as well as socially and productively.
In other words, without robust data and metrics that are accessible to all of society, verifiable, constant, and at the same time replicable over time, we do not have information; and without information we cannot have a total digital inclusion and therefore a true information society.
Editor’s Note: Daniel Malpica is VP Digital Cluster and PU Head SAP at T-Systems Mexico. Follow him on. The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
