FYI -----Original Message----- From: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [mailto:rishab@dxm.org] Sent: 05 October 2005 02:49 To: MERIT-L Cc: mwangi, wangu Subject: *SPAM* paper: ICT does not lead to development! dear all, i thought many of you may find this very readable paper interesting, certainly within the remit of UNU-MERIT! Geography matters: Mapping human development and digital access by Stephanie A. Birdsall and William F. Birdsall First Monday, volume 10, number 10 (October 2005), URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_10/birdsall/index.html Abstract: Policy circles have long made the assumption that information and communications technologies promote human development. In mapping the Human Development Index (HDI) against the Digital Access Index (DAI) we explore the statistical and spatial relationship between human development and digital access. The results suggest information and communications technologies may not play as strong a role in promoting human development as is usually asserted and that public policies might need to be centered more on human rather than digital capital. i have a vested interest in promoting this paper (and exaggerating its findings in the subject), as an editor of First Monday, which is now perhaps the longest-running and most widely read on-line peer-reviewed journal (400 000+ papers downloaded monthly). best, rishab