Back to Goal 17From Measures and Milestones 2002
p. 52-53, published 2002
No infrastructure is complete today until it can support and continuously adapt to the rapidly changing demands of information technology. From the vast arena of business-to-business commerce to online learning, from electronic consumer sales to routine communications, information technology is the future—here and now. Without access to this defining medium, opportunities will be circumscribed. Citizens do not yet rank this key goal highly in terms of its importance, but they are regaining confidence in our progress.
Table 1: Where Citizens Think We Stand
More than ever before Kentuckians are embracing the technology of the Information Age. Indeed, a majority of Kentucky adults now have access to a computer in their homes. In 1996, a little less than a third of Kentuckians had access to a computer in their homes, while another third had access to a computer at work, school or elsewhere, and the remaining third had no access. By 2000, over half reported home computer access, approximately 23 percent had access elsewhere, and a little over 20 percent reported no computer access.
Figure 1: Access to a Personal Computer in Kentucky
While computer ownership is an important measure of preparedness for today’s information technology-dependent economy, the level of access to the Internet is a far better measure of awareness of and engagement in the medium of communications that is now so central to work and life. Again, adult Kentuckians with access to a computer were asked if they had used the Internet in the previous year. In just four years, the proportion of Kentuckians who reported having accessed the Internet more than doubled, rising from 26 percent to 63 percent.
Figure 2: Percent of Kentuckians Who Accessed the Internet in the Previous Year
According to the Kentucky Department of Library and Archives (KDLA), all 180 Kentucky libraries offer public access to the Internet. This was not so just two short years earlier when the libraries were properly equipped but not yet prepared for public Internet use. At that time, lack of training and staff were believed to be the only impediments to this important public service which assures virtually all citizens access to the riches of information and opportunity the Internet offers.
While no comparative ranking of the technological infrastructures of states has been developed, Kentucky is a recognized model for public-private partnerships and a leader among states. Most recently, it received a 2001 award from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) for a computerized traffic information system in northern Kentucky. NASCIO, formerly the National Association of State Information Resource Executives, has also recognized Kentucky’s Information Highway, the Labor Cabinet Imaging System, the Telelinking Network, the Legislation Review System, the International Registration Plan System, and the Worker’s Information System. In 1999, Kentucky won recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of information technology for the Kentucky Information Highway, which was built in partnership with a consortium of communications companies. The 1999 Computerworld Smithsonian Award assured the state’s information highway a place in the Smithsonian exhibit on the evolution of the global technological infrastructure.
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