Read the question and response provided and answer the following questions in a minimum of 600 words.Outside sources are encouraged for use.

• Do you agree with the response? Why? Why not?
• What are the gaps or weaknesses in the response?

Question 8: Can you develop an index of digital maturity vis-a-vis other nation states?

Yes, it is possible to develop an index of nations' digital maturity, but we cannot answer this question completely here. The extent to which countries have deployed digital technologies and leverage Internet technology in their critical infrastructures, their digital maturity, is multi-faceted, and only partially visible through public sources of information. In general, to develop an index, one has to develop the measure (what things are being measured), the methodology (how are data collected), and then muster the resources to collect data. A full index of digital maturity of nation-states, fully populated, perhaps including groups capable of independent action within nation-states (e.g., organized crime syndicates, terrorist groups), would require significant research and intelligence gathering efforts. To provide quick feedback on this question, we sought to identify existing studies that could shed some light on this question, and to suggest methods that can be used to develop such an index. Many of the relevant authoritative reports we could find readily available provide metrics regarding the penetration and adoption of information and communications technologies. The focus is often on the “digital divide”, and is thus concerned with issues of equity, availability, and cost. The most recent such report, released only weeks ago, is from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in its annual report on “Measuring the Information Society − The ICT Development Index” (see http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2009/07.html). The goal of this series of reports is to “develop a single ITU index to track the digital divide and to measure countries' progress towards becoming information societies.” Indeed, “One of the objectives of this publication is to ... provide policy makers with a useful tool to benchmark and assess their information society developments, as well as to monitor progress that has been made globally to close the digital divide.” This document details countryby-country trends in the penetration in both fixed and mobile Internet infrastructure, the rate of adoption of Internet technologies among consumers, and the way these trends differ across nations and regions. This and other reports we could find are, however, focused on consumer or aggregate access to and adoption of digital technology, mobile telecommunications, and Internet communications. A complete index for digital maturity would also require information on the adoption of computer and Internet technologies in military, civilian government and within critical infrastructures in each country. One could consider measures of the degree to which embedded digital systems are deployed (e.g., Are the control systems digital?) and the degree to which digital systems are interconnected and interdependent (e.g., Can data move from here to there? Can the service operate in stand-alone mode?). Also, a broad view of the local factors influencing the speed with which countries are gaining digital maturity could provide insights about future trends. For example, the rate of production of trained IT staff may be a strong indicator of a nation’s future digital maturity. In addition, identifying other groups of interest within countries that could be monitored for digital maturity could be useful. For a thorough answer to this question, we recommend that a team of investigators with expertise in computer science, international business, policy, complex systems, and infrastructure development, be chartered with the tasks of designing the measure (selecting and designing index components), designing a methodology to compute it, collecting existing data, creating the first international index of digital maturity, and to the extent possible, projecting trends forward.