Researchers of the University of Oviedo have participated in The Web Index project which was presented this week in London by the Prince of Asturias Award for Research, Tim Berners-Lee, one of the fathers of the Internet. The project's goal is to measure the impact of the web on our planet.

From the Department of Computer Engineering of the University of Oviedo, the research team WESO, led by the lecturers José Emilio Labra Gayo and José María Álvarez, has contributed to the development of the project with the modelling and publication of all the statistical data gathered. The Asturian research team has followed the directives which make the data easily usable and accesible to third parties. All the information obtained on The Web Index is available for all users, but it has also been thought for an automatic use, a field in which the team of the University of Oviedo has been specially important.

The Web Index tries to analyse economic, political and social factors which might have varied due to the presence of ther Internet in other countries. On the one hand, the percentage of users of the Internet in each country and the contents available for them. On the other hand, it deals with the communication infrastructure, political condemnation, the impact on society and other factors which can help us understand the reality in each area.

The researchers collaborating with The Web Index have obtained a total of 85 indicators to index, each of them with a specific importance in the final weighting. Some of these data have been created by The Web Foundation and others have been collected in international organizations such as ONU, ITU, World Blank, etc.

The index classifies 61 countries according to several factors, both quantitative and qualitative. According to the results of the analysis, Sweden, USA, and UK lead the list, whereas Spain appears in the 18th position. In the last few places are Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Yemen.