Information and communication technologies as a basis for the development of the information society: Russia in the system of international statistical indicators

The purpose of the study. The first goal of the study is a comparative analysis of general indicators of information and communication technologies (ICT) development and the principles of their construction, identifying the possibilities of their use for cross-country comparisons. The second goal is cross-country comparisons based on selected indicators and an assessment of the place and prospects of Russia in the context of ICT development. The objectives of the study are due to the growing worldwide interest of the international scientific community, business and government structures to the development of information and communication technologies and the formation of the information society. The Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society, adopted in 2000, states that information and communication technologies in the 21st century will be one of the most powerful forces and their impact will change people’s lifestyles, ways of learning and working, as well as ways and possibilities for governments to interact with citizens. In this regard, the actual issue is the formation of an adequate information base for studying information and communication technologies not only as an independent object, but also as the most important factor in the formation of the functioning of the digital economy and the formation of the information society.

Materials and methods. For the study, the methods of multidimensional classification, analysis of variation, as well as a tabular method of visual presentation of the research results were used as statistical tools. For the processing of primary information, application packages of statistical analysis were used: Microsoft Excel and STATISTICA 10.0.

Results. Comparison of the indicators revealed the need for their further structuring in order to ensure the comparability of statistical analysis for the largest possible set of countries. Comparison of countries and assessment of the place of Russia was carried out on the basis of the proposed system of indicators using the methods of multidimensional classification, analysis of distributions and studying the dynamics of the indicators. The variety of tasks solved in the study of information and communication technologies and their components predetermined the presence of a large number of generalizing indicators used in cross-country comparisons, as well as a variety of approaches, both to building indicators themselves, and to forming data collection systems that ensure their calculation and comparisons. Considerable scientific and practical interest is the formation of a system of statistical indicators of ICT development, providing multi-level comparability at both country and national levels.

Conclusion. According to the results of a statistical research, Russia’s positions on the accessibility infrastructure characteristics and the use of information and communication technologies are revealed. The country’s lagging behind in terms of the development of both physical and information infrastructure not only from economically developed countries, but also from some BRICS and CIS countries, overcoming of which will make it possible to solve the tasks defined by the Information Society Development Strategy of the country.

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