Framework for the Evaluation of Internet Development. Case Study: Application of Internet Universality Indicators in Ecuador

Digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities in order to have: information access, freedom of expression, human connectivity, technological innovations and participation of multiple actors. Also, these technologies formulate significant challenges, particularly in relation to freedom of expression, privacy, online misinformation, journalists' safety, transparency, gender and other kind of inequality gaps. In this context, Internet universality indicators (IUI) emerge as a quantification and management technologies for helping states and governments in the assessment of their Internet environments, the reduction of digital gaps and the improvement of internet access. Moreover, these indicators relate to the core of UNESCO's mandate to “promote the free movement of ideas through word and image” and to build inclusive knowledge societies. This tool is aimed at strengthening the Internet's role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The IUI framework serves to operationalize the concept of “Internet universality”, adopted by UNESCO in 2015, through a practical evaluation of the Internet based on the ROAM-X principles, which promote a human rights-based Internet, which have to be open and accessible to all, and include the participation of multiple stakeholders. The results of implementation of these indicators around of world will serve to highlight possible gaps and serve as a basis for developing recommendations to achieve targeted improvements. One of the first implementations of this framework was done in Ecuador during 2019. This study uses the SWOT method in order to analyse this implementation and the results achieved. Findings show that a clear definition of latent concepts as included in each category of IUI in order to identify the best factors-variable for estimating the corresponding aspect in a specific implementation is needed, however, this is a topic that reveals an important research interest from academia in special for quantification and management technologies field.