What is Digg?51 Comments
- quomen, on 10/12/2007, -7/+39It makes me wonder what the United States might be capable of if we spent billions of dollars of our monies on something other than war.
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Who would have thought an enormous, land locked, sparsely populated country in the middle of the desert and in the midst of a civil war would have poor broadband access?
- saikhan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Uganda is in Sub-Sharan Africa.
- spindrift, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15That Chad sure is dangling.
- Prysorra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12GapMinder has a good graphic for total users:
http://tools.google.com/gapminder/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2004$zpv;v=1$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=IT.NET.USER.P3;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=20;iid=SP.POP.TOTL;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=1004;iid=SP.POP.DPND;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=466;dataMax=64299$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=0;dataMax=788$map_s;sma=50;smi=1.2$inds= - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10This makes me one proud Viking.. dont tell anyone my School used 3.11 untill i were 12.. (20 now)
- miken32, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8What are you some kind of pervert? The internet is for all that sexy talk. And I hear they let those ho-mo-sexuals on there too!
Sure, digg me down; you know there's someone out there saying it though. - vdxc, on 09/29/2008, -0/+6I'm sure I read somewhere that the UK was higher than the US in terms of broadband quality/speed/price. And Digg seems to have many stories about US citizens with low download limits, high prices, poor connectivity etc. Whereas in the UK there is a price war, constantly increasing speeds and investment in infrastructure.
For example: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=2 The top package (10Mbps/£35 (just under $70)) is to be upgraded to 20mb for everyone on it in May this year for no extra fee. - Farik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Everybody knows networked computers are bad. What if the Cylon's breach the firewall?
- dcbebop, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The US is slipping? Can't imagine why when 30%+ of the US doesn't see the need for the internet. What's wrong with this country? Have we lost the urge to share information?
- p0rkkis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@ smeuse
"Notice anything about the top 6 on the list? All have very dense population areas, very unlike the US."
Sweden and Finland can hardly be considered "dense" compared to the US.
Population per square mile:
US 80
Sweden 52
Finland 40 - SwellGuy007, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@drunkenrobot
What a ***** thing to say to someone. Quoman makes a great point, and that is how change is started ... by one person wondering about the possibilities.
Totalitarian dictatorships run by old brown men seem to be much worse on average...expansionary or not. Education applies to everyone.
Yes, I see the irony in my own racist statement about old brown men, and yes it is intentional to make a point. No offense is intended to any brown people reading this. - DRINKxREDxBULL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Why is the US slipping?
The U.S., which topped the Networked Readiness Index last year, dropped to No. 7 in part because of an increasingly slow and complex legal and regulatory environment. The U.S. is burdened by a cumbersome taxation system (ranked No. 31 in the world); a legal framework (ranked No. 25) that produces innumerable corporate lawsuits; and a limited use of ICT to streamline government (No. 40 in the world). The U.S. even remains behind in mobile-phone usage, being ranked No. 48 worldwide.
Why is Estonia in the top 20?
One case study in the report looks at the tiny Baltic nation of Estonia, which posted GDP growth of 10.5% in 2005 and ranked No. 20 this year in networked readiness—the first time a former Eastern bloc country has made the top 20. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Estonia set out to transform itself from a backward, centrally planned economy to free-market capitalism.
The result was that Estonia built a streamlined, business-friendly, and technologically advanced society that now attracts considerable foreign investment and hosts scads of small e-businesses. - ametory, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Countries with lower ranks, I am sorry you can't download enough porn to meet your requirements.
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I don't like that we are slipping, but compare us to the top ten. The others are tiny, dense countries. We're a huge country with a really spread out population. We have substantially higher challenges than Singapore. It's not an excuse, especially since we're slipping, but we're not doing that bad
- miken32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Chadian, Ivorian.
- rac3r5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The rankings if anyone is interested. The formatting is a bit off I know..
URL:http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/networked_readiness_index/2007/index.asp?sortCol=rank_2006&sortOrder=ASC&pageNum=1&resultNum=125
countries 2006 Score 2006 Rank 2005 Rank Gain/Loss(2005-2006)
Denmark 5.71 1 3 2
Sweden 5.66 2 8 6
Singapore 5.60 3 2 -1
Finland 5.59 4 5 1
Switzerland 5.58 5 9 4
Netherlands 5.54 6 12 6
United States 5.54 7 1 -6
Iceland 5.50 8 4 -4
United Kingdom 5.45 9 10 1
Norway 5.42 10 13 3
Canada 5.35 11 6 -5
Hong Kong SAR 5.35 12 11 -1
Taiwan, China 5.28 13 7 -6
Japan 5.27 14 16 2
Australia 5.24 15 15 0
Germany 5.22 16 17 1
Austria 5.17 17 18 1
Israel 5.14 18 19 1
Korea, Rep. 5.14 19 14 -5
Estonia 5.02 20 23 3
Ireland 5.01 21 20 -1
New Zealand 5.01 22 21 -1
France 4.99 23 22 -1
Belgium 4.93 24 25 1
Luxembourg 4.90 25 26 1
Malaysia 4.74 26 24 -2
Malta 4.52 27 30 3
Portugal 4.48 28 27 -1
UAE 4.42 29 28 -1
Slovenia 4.41 30 35 5
Chile 4.36 31 29 -2
Spain 4.35 32 31 -1
Hungary 4.33 33 38 5
Czech Republic 4.28 34 32 -2
Tunisia 4.24 35 36 1
Qatar 4.21 36 39 3
Thailand 4.21 37 34 -3
Italy 4.19 38 42 4
Lithuania 4.18 39 44 5
Barbados 4.18 40 NA NM
Slovak Republic 4.15 41 41 0
Latvia 4.13 42 51 9
Cyprus 4.12 43 33 -10
India 4.06 44 40 -4
Jamaica 4.05 45 54 9
Croatia 4.00 46 57 11
South Africa 4.00 47 37 -10
Greece 3.98 48 43 -5
Mexico 3.91 49 55 6
Bahrain 3.89 50 49 -1
Mauritius 3.87 51 45 -6
Turkey 3.86 52 48 -4
Brazil 3.84 53 52 -1
Kuwait 3.80 54 46 -8
Romania 3.80 55 58 3
Costa Rica 3.77 56 69 13
Jordan 3.74 57 47 -10
Poland 3.69 58 53 -5
China 3.68 59 50 -9
Uruguay 3.67 60 65 5
El Salvador 3.66 61 59 -2
Indonesia 3.59 62 68 6
Argentina 3.59 63 71 8
Colombia 3.59 64 62 -2
Panama 3.58 65 66 1
Dominican Republic 3.56 66 89 23
Botswana 3.56 67 56 -11
Trinidad and Tobago 3.55 68 74 6
Philippines 3.55 69 70 1
Russian Federation 3.54 70 72 2
Azerbaijan 3.53 71 73 2
Bulgaria 3.53 72 64 -8
Kazakhstan 3.52 73 60 -13
Serbia and Montenegro 3.48 74 80 6
Ukraine 3.46 75 76 1
Morocco 3.45 76 77 1
Egypt 3.44 77 63 -14
Peru 3.43 78 85 7
Guatemala 3.41 79 98 19
Algeria 3.41 80 87 7
Macedonia, FYR 3.41 81 82 1
Vietnam 3.40 82 75 -7
Venezuela 3.32 83 81 -2
Pakistan 3.31 84 67 -17
Namibia 3.28 85 78 -7
Sri Lanka 3.27 86 83 -3
Mauritania 3.25 87 NA NM
Nigeria 3.23 88 90 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.20 89 97 8
Mongolia 3.18 90 92 2
Tanzania 3.13 91 84 -7
Moldova 3.13 92 94 2
Georgia 3.12 93 96 3
Honduras 3.09 94 100 6
Kenya 3.07 95 91 -4
Armenia 3.07 96 86 -10
Ecuador 3.05 97 107 10
Guyana 3.01 98 111 13
Burkina Faso 2.97 99 NA NM
Uganda 2.97 100 79 -21
Mali 2.96 101 95 -6
Madagascar 2.95 102 102 0
Nicaragua 2.95 103 112 9
Bolivia 2.93 104 109 5
Kyrgyz Republic 2.90 105 103 -2
Cambodia 2.88 106 104 -2
Albania 2.87 107 106 -1
Nepal 2.83 108 NA NM
Benin 2.83 109 108 -1
Suriname 2.82 110 NA NM
Malawi 2.79 111 NA NM
Zambia 2.75 112 NA NM
Cameroon 2.74 113 99 -14
Paraguay 2.69 114 113 -1
Mozambique 2.64 115 101 -14
Lesotho 2.61 116 NA NM
Zimbabwe 2.60 117 105 -12
Bangladesh 2.55 118 110 -8
Ethiopia 2.55 119 115 -4
Angola 2.42 120 NA NM
Burundi 2.40 121 NA NM
Chad 2.16 122 114 -8 - mfhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It works like this.
Smaller or socialist countries spend their tax revenues on national infrastructure, while the US spends its tax money on "defense" i.e., war and leaves infrastructure to private industry.
However, it's because of defense spending that things like the internet (DARPAnet) exist in the first place.
Get it? - GrantTheGr8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Forget Norway. Where can you find lions? Only in Kenya!
- spocksbrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@smeuse
US population density: 31/km²
Sweden population density: 20/km²
Finland population density: 16/km²
Norway population density: 12/km²
Iceland population density: 2.9/km²
Yes, the top 10 might be filled with small countries, but don't get the idea that all of them are densely populated countries. - CGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But the internet access is pretty damn good everywhere in Scandinavia, not only in the big cities (though, it is better there).
- DRINKxREDxBULL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ smemuse -
I was thinking the same thing. I grew up in outstate Minnesota, the only options my parents have for internet is dial-up (and I mean 1999 dial-up) and satellite. They barley have functional cell service. - Complexium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I wonder why BusinessWeek didn't put Norway in the slide show.
- GerryDaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm surprised South Korea isn't in the top 10...it's really wired here. http://thedailykimchi.blogspot.com
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'd rather use Win 3.11 than Win 9x. I don't remember 3.11 crashing spectacularly at every chance it got.
- t2t2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Woo! Go Estonia!
Next year were gonna boom like onto 10 because of E-voting and E-School ;) - michaelzhao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It is on there. It is listed as its formal name: Korea Rep.
- d3vmax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ironically, Denmark got the award for making use of it's technology and improving it's economy this year. I read somewhere on digg, USA loses it's technological edge and is not at rank 7, while Denmark is # 1 :) (what gives?)
- madmack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Qatar and UAE are fairing very well in the list. I'm very happy that my country's money is finally getting directed into the right path. Heck, we're doing better than Italy I mean. surprised me frankly.
EDIT: it seems we did swap places with Thailand -3 / 3 gain/loss though - michaelzhao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, you guys are right, the small countries are not as dense as the US. However, that is because there population is highly concentrated. The areas of major concentration are all the major cities whereas there are many areas that are sparsely populated. This is much easier to handle logisitically to create a more "wired" population.
Although the population is more dense here, the population is more spread out making it harder to be wired. With this point of view taken in mind. I don't think we're doing all that bad. - jull1234, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Maybe Chad would be more networked if Carol would just let him talk..
- omgcthulhu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Beautiful! I'm not impressed. Butt dugg it for some reason. http://chocozone.blogspot.com
- foamcow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Do you ever wonder why Scandanavian countries are so networked and technologicallu 'up there'? Why they lead the world in mobile phone technology?
It's because it was always economically unviable to rely on landlines the population was too spread out. So they developed their mobile communications technology that didn't require cabling.
Because of this, they have always been quicker to embrace technology - it's in their nature - and so as a consequence they have a much more 'wired' society. - kolop1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Japan is 14? Marked as inaccurate.
- smeuse, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Notice anything about the top 6 on the list? All have very dense population areas, very unlike the US. If you were to compare geographic areas of the US that had the same population densities as those countries, I think you would find the US higher on the list. The middle of the country skews per-capita numbers.
- topace3000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is a re-post of the same list, but the first time it was under a more misleading title and the information given was less informative.
Considering how many people the US has, it's pretty impressive that we'd be ranked so highly in networking... still, I don't know how valid this whole thing really is.. - drunkenrobot, on 10/12/2007, -16/+16@quomen
Maybe you'd get educated enough to realize you live in a expansionary totalitarian dictatorship run by old white men. - tuaregorama, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Quite doubtful. I'm surprised.
- sharly2007, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I don't like that we are slipping, but compare us to the top ten. The others are tiny, dense countries. We're a huge country with a really spread out population. We have substantially higher challenges than Singapore. It's not an excuse, especially since we're slipping, but we're not doing that bad http://www.gwafi.com/home.html http://www.gwafi.com/links.html
- xXAzraelXx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Spreading info is a GREAT start... As long as you FILTER it through, some sort of... Let's say porno is the secret behind 82% of information growth... And uhn... Porno stops people from wanting wives... So if people want their computers AND their wives, no prono... :P
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0You guys are uncultured losers, don't you know stupid french african jokes
>Pourquoi l'homme de Cote d'Ivoire ne peut pas voir?
>Parce'que il voit rien
Hilarious... - lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Well, it depends on how you compute your statistics. I'll believe your numbers for population over square KM, but that doesn't tell the whole story.
For your comparison to be valuable, you would have to assume an equal distribution of people per sq. km, which is a ridiculous. Those countries all have highly concentrated populations along the coastal regions. It is easy to serve a huge portion of the population in a relatively small area. Sure, their overall population/area number is small, but I bet 90 percent of their population lives in an area with an extremely high population density. The difficulty with the United States is that we have medium density areas throughout an enormous area.
And you have to look the size itself. Sure, Iceland may be less dense than we are. Let's even pretend they are equally distributed throughout the country. Since Iceland is so small compared to us, they have to run significantly less fiber to serve everyone. The capital investment is smaller even with the same population density. - mapkinase, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1That story had enough diggs already: here is direct link
http://news.com.com/2300-1033_3-6035611-1.html?part=rss&tag=6035611&subj=news - heythisismyname, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1This map shows the international cabling system.
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Map_Showing_the_International_Undersea_Cables - habu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2North Korea is not even on the list... I am sure they would beat out Chad for last place.
- marketnet, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5Interesting list, I wasn't aware that Denmark was first on the list.
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Why can't people from Cote d'Ivoire see anything?
Because they're Ivoiran! - saintdesy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2What do call someone from Chad? Chadite? Chadainian? How about The Ivory Coast? Ivory Coaster? I think my grandma had one of those to put her drinks on.
- Jshnlsn, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Good for Uganda... they jumped 21 positions!
Edit: Actually good for a great deal of the "Middle East" they are all jumping!
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