Dr. Juan Luis Manfredi Sánchez discusses measuring democracy and technology. He explains that information has become abundant due to digital technology, bringing benefits but also challenges. When measuring technology, indexes consider the information society, economic, and social dimensions. Key laws around the growth of processing power, bandwidth, and network value are described. Mixing democracy and technology requires considering infrastructure, costs, policy, education, innovation, and more. The digital divide refers to gaps between those who do and do not have access to technology, which can impact development and society.

1. Measuring Democracy and TechnologyDr. Juan Luis Manfredi SánchezCorreo-e: juan.manfredi@yahoo.esjuan.manfredi@ie.eduTwitter: @juanmanfredihttp://ciberdemocracia.blogspot.com

2. 2Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi1. Measuring Democracy

3. 3Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi1. Measuring Democracy

4. 4Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi2. Measuring TechnologyInformation has gone from scarce to superabundantThat brings huge new benefits, but also big headachesThe capability of digital technology multiplies the information that was previously unavailable

5. 5Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi2. Measuring TechnologyIt plays a central role both in macroeconomics and in economic development: it’s a key question in public policiesAgain, we have dozens of index: there’s no good index and bad indexOECD: “The Guide is a compilation of concepts, definitions, classifications and methods for information society measurement and analysis” in three dimensions:Information societyEconomic dimensionSocial dimensionLet’s see how

6. 6Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi

7. 7Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi2. Measuring TechnologyConvergence and Innovation – The Big ThreeMoore's Law: the processing power of a microchip doubles every 18 months; corollary, computers become faster and the price of a given level of computing power halves every 18 monthsGilder's Law: the total bandwidth of communication systems triples every twelve monthsMetcalfe's Law: the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of nodes; so, as a network grows, the value of being connected to it grows exponentially, while the cost per user remains the same or even reduces.

8. 8Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi3. Mixing Democracy and Technology

9. 9Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi3. Mixing Democracy and Technology

10. 10Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi3. Mixing Democracy and Technology

11. 11Juan Luis Manfredi, Ph.D @juanmanfredi4. Public PoliciesWhat to consider?Infrastructure availability

12. Cost of ICT goods and services

13. The ICT policy environment

14. Trust that users have in the online environment.

15. The education and skills base of the population (specialised and general)

16. Labour market supply and costs.

17. Innovation and R&D base, entrepreneurship culture and support (private and public)

18. A momentum effect driven by penetration of ICT

19. Productivity impacts of ICT investment and use.

20. Changes in the structure of economies

21. The growth of the ICT and services sectors

22. Changes to employment and the nature of work

23. Impact on globalisation

24. Facilitation of learning (both formal and informal)