Back from Mexican 'ciber'space

The eagle has landed, amidst the afterglow of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
I was doing my own triple axles down in Mexico looking for Internet Cafes with people who spend time in virtual worlds though, spanning several cities including sprawling Guadalajara, colonial Guanajuato, coastal San Patricio/Barra de Navidad, and quaint Colima. The Internet cafes are often referred to as "cibers."
The Mexican context presented its own particularities and challenges, because unlike Korea, digital gaming is viewed as a juvenile and/or geeky antisocial activity. Still grappling with accessibility issues (one of the lowest in the OECD), the Internet cafe facilities are caught at various 'moments in time,' that may or may not enable participation in virtual worlds. Another factor is the battle between console and PC gaming. Furthermore, in the ample public spaces I previously blogged about, there are numerous 'free' and 'offline' activities.
That's just a glimpse of how I spent my "Olympic Break." Suffice it to say, "This will be in my report!"

A deeper look at OECD numbers

From Mark Goldberg's blog, a deeper look into the OECD numbers on broadband penetration in which he talks about South Korea's situation on what counts towards rankings.

From his entry:

One would think that homes with computers would be the asymptote for broadband penetration - why would a household subscribe to broadband if you don't have access to a computer?

Well, apparently in Korea it doesn't work that way. In fact, 20% of their broadband enabled households have no access to computers.

What is going on there?

When you dig deeper, it turns out that Korea's household broadband data includes broadband enabled mobile phones. Since virtually every phone in Korea is a 3G phone, every household with a mobile phone is scored as having broadband access.

Sometimes, you need to scratch beneath the surface.

He states in the comments that apples are indeed being compared to apples in his analysis and asserts that raw rankings and numbers are irrelevant without analysis and context.

Raw rankings and numbers are manipulable, and it is tough to get one's hands dirty to actually find out what is happening on the ground. That's why I'm here.