Computers, Internet and Broadband

I decided to look at more Austrian statistics and found I can access a publication that tells you all me everything I could possibly want to know about IKT-Einsatz in Haushalten 2009 What is IKT? Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien, in other words, the same as English ICT - though ICT seems to be a term more used in schools than any where else in Britain.

The Austrian publication contains data about what people use the internet for - die Zwecke der Internetnutzung - about online shopping and the most popular internet purchases. You'll also find a wonderfully modern German phrase in use "E Commerce and Trust". If you like computers, statistics and learning German then you can have fun with this publication. Follow the link above for a summary of the publication and then decide whether you want to download it.

Women in Austria

Yesterday was international women's day - Internationaler Frauentag - and Statistik Austria published a press release about data that shows some interesting differences between men and women particularly in respect of changes in the educational achievement of women over the last few decades.

Bei den Maturaabschlüssen haben die 18- bis 19-jährigen Frauen beispielsweise ihre männlichen Schulkollegen bereits Mitte der 1980er Jahre überholt, 2007/08 wurden 57% der Maturaabschlüsse von Frauen abgelegt. An den Universitäten zeigt sich ein ähnliches Bild: 2007/2008 wurden 56% der Studienabschlüsse von Frauen erworben. Bei den Doktoraten sind Männer allerdings noch in der Überzahl - rund 58% der Doktoratsabschlüsse entfielen auf Männer.

Die Matura is the Austrian and Swiss equivalent of das Abitur. It has much the same meaning as the English "matriculation" - qualifying for university entrance. I wonder what lies behind the lower proportion gaining doctorates. Is there some form of discrimination operating? There are certainly some gender specific differentiation when it comes to professions and also how far up the career ladder women advance. The article also has something to say about "gender pay gap".

There is some useful material here if you want to practise vocabulary about increase and decrease and comparison. Or perhaps you might want to express some opinions about whether you feel women are still disadvantaged in society or about what might be done to reduce the risk of poverty for Alleinerziehende Frauen

Open-Data

Very strangely I picked up on some British news from a German blog the other day. I'm following www.netzpolitik.org and found a post about Open Government Data. About 3000 datasets are available from data.gov.uk. I found this quote from Daniel Dietrich of OpenData Network in the post

Die Daten stehen ab sofort in maschinenlesbaren Formaten und unter einer offenen Lizenz der Öffentlichkeit zur freien Verfügung. Damit ist die Seite der derzeit umfangreichste und ambitionierteste “Open Government Data” Katalog weltweit. Ein großer Tag für die Opendata Bewegung!

You'll also find an article about the Guardian launching on the same day a central portal to World Government Data from various governments throughout the world - Guardian eröffnet "zentralen Zugang zu den Verwaltungsdaten der Welt"

I would like to have your comments on the Opendata Movement and on any hopes you have for eDemocracy. If you want to find some German and Austrian data sources their are some useful statistics links on Jeckylls Heft