OZ 8th Best @ The Web

But who’s No. 1?

Click to enlarge

Australia is 8th best in the world at using the web.

However, Sweden, US and the UK came out in the top 3, followed by Canada and Finland on the Web Index which measures connectivity, infrastructure, the social and economic impact the Web has in countries.

Coming in at eighth place, Australia scored 88.44 out of 100, doing well in ‘web readiness’ and ‘social’ impact categories in particular, with New Zealand beating us to the No. 7 spot.

Norway and Ireland also came in the top 10.

The Index, the first ever measure of the Web’s growth, utility and impact on nations, was developed by the World Wide Web Foundation, and was announced in London yesterday by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web.

The Index also looked at individual Web usage and the content available to users.

It covered 61 developed and developing nations with Zimbabwe and Yemen coming bottom of the pile.

High broadband prices and trends towards censorship are the biggest barrier to web use, the report also noted, and comes as the Attorney General Nicola Roxon backed plans for ISP to store web usage data for more than 2 years, citing “national security” issues, this week.

Almost 30% of countries covered by the Index face moderate to severe government restrictions on access to websites, while about half show increasing threats to press freedom, the Index notes.

“The Web is a global conversation. Growing suppression of free speech, both online and offline, is possibly thesingle biggest challenge to the future of the Web,” warned Berners-Lee.

However, the Web remains a largely untapped resource in much of the world, with only 1 in 3 people using it globally and fewer than 1 in 6 in Africa.