{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0410958904109589, 'fraction_numerical': 0.03117619272555503, 'mean_word_length': 4.771117166212534, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Internet gains acceptance in the Persian Gulf

Over the last 20 years, the number of countries with Internet (ARPAnet in the mid-1970s) connectivity has increased from about a halfdozen to over 170. Growth rates for the number of hosts and users have been around 100% annually for a decade. Although this extraordinary diffusion has been truly global, it has not been uniform. A few large areas have been slow to acquire or absorb this technology, including many extremely poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa and small island states in the Southwest Pacific. In terms of population, wealth, and geography, the most striking under-representation in this Internetted world is the 51 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Stretching from Guinea-Bissau on the west African coast to Indonesia in Southeast Asia, the OIC covers a wide spectrum of geography, demography, and economic well-being (Figure 1). In late 1993, of the roughly 15,000 nets then comprising the global Internet, the OIC total was 42, with 29 in Turkey and Indonesia [4]. Even within the OIC, among the slowest to join the world’s Internet community have been the nations of the Persian Gulf. These nine petrochemically endowed countries range from tiny Bahrain and Qatar (each with about 600,000 people) to much larger Iran (70 million), Iraq (21 million), and Saudi Arabia (20 million). Per capita GDP (adjusted for purchasing power) varies from Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (about $$15,000–$20,000 each) to Yemen (about $1,600— although not on the Persian Gulf, Yemen is included to complete the Arabian Peninsula). The ninth, Oman, ranks in the middle. In January 1994, the Persian Gulf had no TCP/IP hosts when the rest of the world had over 2.2 million. By January 1995, Kuwait had modest, and Iran fairly minimal, connectivity. Now all but Iraq are connected, some with impressive growth percentages (Table 1). Why was there so little of the Internet in this part of the world for so long? And what has brought about its acceptance in so many countries in a short time? International Perspectives