255 Digital Divide in Indonesian Higher Education Evidence from Website Popularity and Reputation Widya Silfianti Department of Information Systems Gunadarma University Depok, Indonesia wsilfi@staff.gunadarma.ac.id Ruddy J. Suhatril Department of Information Systems Gunadarma University Depok, Indonesia ruddyjs@staff.gunadarma.ac.id Sugiharti Binastuti Departement of Management Gunadarma University Depok, Indonesia tuti@staff.gunadarma.ac.id Sri Mifti Susilowati Departement of Accounting Gunadarma University Depok, Indonesia mifti@staff.gunadarma.ac.id Abstract— Higher Education in Indonesia makes use of websites more intensively in promoting the education process, nevertheless, the websites popularity and reputation are still considered low if we refer to webometrics and 4icu ranks. This condition can be known from the evaluation result of 264 higher education institutions websites consisting of 58 public higher education institutions and 206 private higher education institutions. Public HEIs websites are different with private HEIs websites in term of referring domain indicators, external backlinks, and global traffic rank. The similar differences also prevail between HEIs in Java Island and HEIs outside Java. The result of discriminant analysis shows the existence of digital divide between public and private HEIs websites based on five popularity indicators and website reputation with 77.9% prediction level. Keywords—higher education, digital divide, webmetrcis, web usability I. Introduction The number of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Indonesia is the most of other countries in the region of ASEAN. Private HEIs percentage is much higher than public HEIs. One of education service strategies in this information era can be conducted by implementing information and communication technology in a teaching learning process and academic information services. The ability of service range from the internet becomes one of the considerations. The management capacity can be increased so that the services for students can be also improved. The use of ICT –including the internet– in HEIs become an important aspect providing contribution for HEIs popularity, and can be used in the implementation of web-based learning model. The productivity of web-based learning model can be measured by a number of content and information existing in HEIs websites. The emergent popularity of web technologies and their applications have created vast opportunities for higher education institution[1]. Nowadays, this parameter of information wealth is implemented widely as one of higher education institutions rankings, like the one conducted by webometrics and 4icu. Ref. [2] stated that global university rankings are likely to substantially influence the long-term development of HEIs across the world, rankings of HEIs and programs are a global phenomenon, related to the demand for transparent information on the quality of teaching provision and the standing of HEIs offering it. Ref. [3] stated that in some country, the ranking exercise is undertaken as part of the accreditation process, either by the accreditation agency itself, or by the authority in charge of tertiary education. According to [2], every national higher education system is shaped by the dynamics of status competition and system stratification between institutions The objectives of this writing are to (1) explain the ranking result of HEIs in Indonesia based on webometrics and 4icu; (2) analyze the popularity of HEIs websites in Indonesia; and (3) to analyze the digital discrepancy between public and private HEIs and the digital discrepancy based on HEIs location. II. Theoretical Background One of technology types widely implemented recently is the internet or web technology. In education field, web-based technology is designed to facilitate a learning process. Therefore, perception concerning the easiness of the internet use is needed, especially for students knowing the computer and internet technology introduction in developing countries [4]. UACEE International Journal of Advances in Computer Science and its Applications – IJCSIA Volume 3 : Issue 2 [ISSN 2250 – 3765] Publication Date : 05 June 2013