computer science

Infostate

Infostate is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Infostate rather than just read about it. In short: Infostate is an index used to measure the Digital Divide. It was proposed by Orbicom, the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications, in "Monitoring the Digital Divide… and beyond".

Key takeaways

Infostate belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Infostate to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Infostate from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Infostate is an index used to measure the Digital Divide. It was proposed by Orbicom, the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications, in "Monitoring the Digital Divide… and beyond". The conceptual framework of the index introduces the notions of a country's infodensity and info-use. Infodensity refers to the stocks of ICT capital and labour, including networks and ICT skills, indicative of a country's productive capacity and indispensable to function in an Information Society. It includes ICT networks, machinery, and equipment, as well as ICT skills, indispensable for the functioning of information, knowledge-oriented societies. Info-use refers to the uptake and consumption flows of ICTs, as well as their intensity of use by households, businesses and governments and the intensity of their actual use. Infostate is an aggregation of Infodensity and Info-use indexes and represents the degree of a country's ‘ICT-ization’. The Digital Divide is then defined as the relative difference in infostates among economies. The Infostate index is used as a base for another index, the ICT Opportunity Index, proposed by ITU, International Telecommunication Unit in “From the Digital Divide to DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES: Measuring Infostates for Development”. The ICT Opportunity Index is in fact the merger of two well known initiatives, ITU's Digital Access Index (DAI) and Orbicom's Monitoring the Digital Divide/ Infostate conceptual framework and model.

Main works Sciadas, G. (Ed.) (2005). From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities. Montreal: Orbicom. Sciadas, G. (2004). International Benchmarking for the Information Society. Busan: ITU Sciadas, G. (Ed.) (2003). the Digital Divide... and Beyond Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. Montreal: Orbicom. Sciadas, G. (2002). Monitoring the Digital Divide. Montreal: Orbicom.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Infostate

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Infostate claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Infostate before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Infostate ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Infostate

In research: Infostate appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Infostate in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Infostate is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computing stubs, Digital divide, UNESCO, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Infostate outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Infostate in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Infostate means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Infostate out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Infostate in simple terms?

Infostate is an index used to measure the Digital Divide. It was proposed by Orbicom, the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications, in "Monitoring the Digital Divide… and beyond".

Why does Infostate matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Infostate?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Infostate.