Ireland ranks 10 on Berners Lee web index

The World Wide Web Foundation today launched the Web Index – a new country-by-country global study that measures the impact of the Web on the world’s people and nations.

Ireland achieved a score of 10 in the world for using the Internet to improve people’s lives, ahead of France and Spain but well behind the UK, which came third in a global survey launched by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Ireland has the highest score for the “economic impact” of the web on the Berner’s Lee index.

Web inventor and Web Foundation founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee hosted an event in London to mark the launch of the Index. He was joined in conversation by two of the world’s leading Web experts: Wael Ghonim, internet activist and Head of Marketing of Google Middle East & North Africa, and Juliana Rotich, co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, the Kenyan crowd-mapping platform.

Their discussion was moderated by Stephen Fry, one of the UK’s most influential Tweeters and an advocate of internet freedom.

Sweden Receives Award for Top Rank

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said: ”The Web Index was created to measure the state of the Web in the world. Each country will see not only where they rank compared to others, but also what the World Wide Web Foundation thinks they need to do to improve.”

The highest ranking country in the Web Index is Sweden. The US ranks second, and the UK third. Yemen is the lowest ranking country in the Index, preceded by Zimbabwe.

Brendan McDonagh,  Director of Planning at IDA Ireland said:

Ireland’s performance in this index is very encouraging for businesses looking to establish themselves in Ireland. Ireland has the highest score for the “economic impact” of the web on the Berner’s Lee index.

The high economic impact score is a reflection of the strength of the ICT sector in Ireland. This index underlines the importance of the web to businesses in Ireland and reminds us all of the need to fully implement the broadband strategy outlined recently by Minister Pat Rabbitte.

Link to Index: http://thewebindex.org/