I’ve entered the ITU data on broadband penetration for all countries from 1998-2008 into a Google Docs spreadsheet, and then added the Motion Chart visualiser.
To access the spreadsheet data and Google Motion chart, go to: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tuY4rmkYVhRxKCXiltg_obg&output=html
The screenshot below gives an example. Also given below are two screenshot summary graphs derived from overview data about diffusion rates for broadband, which can be found at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tCyqBGWg0E8qg6qG77ltZ2g&output=html.
The most useful statistics are absolute growth rates (weighted by population), which show growth having peaked in 2005 for the richest fifth of nations, but generally still rising for the others. The percentage growth rates have been steadily declining, but mainly because those growth figures are insanely high in the first few years of broadband diffusion given the very low base they start from.
You can find similar visualisations that you can cross-match with a host of other data categories (demographics, economic/social development, and ICT diffusion) using World Bank data (http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/) or a graph I’ve created at Gapminder: http://bit.ly/78IWkN. But these don’t go up to 2008, and you can’t see or access the underlying data.
Note the dynamic visualisation charts will not show up on slower PCs or Internet connections.
For similar data visualisation of mobile phone penetration, see my earlier blog entry at: https://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/mobile-phone-penetration-google-motion-chart-data-visualisation/
ICTs for Development 