Digital Divide Analysis in Colombia and Mexico Using Complex Networks and Open Data Platforms

The digital divide is the difference that exists between people in terms of access to technological tools and their ability to use them to meet their personal objectives. To reduce this gap, processes are undertaken within the framework of the phenomenon known as digital inclusion. Governments, organizations and institutions related to technologies recognize the social nature of the digital divide and the need to involve communities in the process of managing associated programs and projects. Although it has been identified that there are different individual and group characteristics that enable the appropriation of technological tools and their use to achieve objectives and improve participation in labor, educational and political activities, and also that there are tools and data available to analyze the behavior of this phenomenon, these processes are not frequently carried out and the benefits of data science to study the digital divide are not taken advantage of. For this reason, this paper uses the open data platforms of Colombia and Mexico to analyze the phenomenon. To do this, complex network analysis and Actor-Network Theory were used to identify communities and commonalities between groups of people with and without technological devices. In practical terms, this process is expected to show the options available to take ad-vantage of the existing open data ecosystem to approach this type of phenomena.