US slips in global info and comm tech rankings

Prepare yourself for a prolonged round of chest-thumping and prognosticating about the sorry state of high-tech in the US in response to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2006-2007. The rankings, released 3 April, show the US slipping from first to seventh in WEF’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) – a composite scale measuring the ability of 122 different countries to take advantage of their information and communication technology resources.

The ratings measure 3 key things:
•The readiness of governments, businesses, and individuals to effectively utilize info and comm techs
•The general regulatory, business, and infrastructure environment
•The usage of available technology by the above stakeholders

In the report released this week, Denmark was rated #1, followed by Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. But before we all pack up our cords, cards, gadgets and gizmos and head to Scandinavia or Southeast Asia, there are a whole lot of good things going on in tech enterprises in the US, according to a different rating measured by the very same World Economic Forum. Of 47 companies recognized by WEF as Technology Pioneers in 2007, more than half (27) are from the US. No other country has more than 6.

Also, let’s be sure not to confuse networked readiness with market opportunity. On the WEF NRI index, China slid eight positions down to 59, while India slid four places to 44. But remember, even a small percentage of either population is many times larger than the total population of the first 6 countries combined.

So what does this mean for experiential marketing? It means we have a whole lot more high-tech tools in the toolkit – from mobile phones to handheld devices and RFID tags – that we can use in an increasing number of markets to expand, enhance and extend experiences for global clients.

-Joe Panepinto, PhD, Jack Morton Digital, strategist