Measuring the impact of ICT on society : methodological aspects

The goal of this study is to develop a method which would provide decision-makers with a tool in the form of aggregated indicators, operating on any selected phenomena of the information society, e.g. e-government, e-learning or e-health, and allowing to position a given country among others by comparing them.

With the turbulent development of ICT, which has changed the standards of social life in virtually all of its realms, there is a need to make quick and prudent economic and political decisions at various levels. Increasingly, therefore, this calls for improved methods of measuring what is happening in the information society (IS). Despite the fact that many detailed indicators have been developed over the last several decades, there is a need for a quick and comprehensive look at the state of ICT development in various societies.

In order to choose relevant characteristics for each phenomenon, the author has applied the designer, two-aspect classification method of, which also takes into account the so-called royalty, i.e. the measure of closeness centrality. Thanks to this, it was possible to look at the researched phenomena from the point of view of their macro features. The obtained results are presented in 4 tables.

Using the source data, Poland’s position concerning selected phenomena of ICT applications among selected European countries was presented. The practical application of the method made it possible to place a given country among others by comparing them.