The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how the Dalenius-Hodges stratification methodology typically used in sampling, when combined with ranking and index standardization procedures, becomes a powerful policy tool for classifying and benchmarking global information society (GIS) phenomena. The Dalenius-Hodges methodology is preferable to other popular benchmarking methodologies; it has an objective criterion in demarcating strata boundaries and a standardized procedure of compiling indexes irrespective of the nature of the variables and is conceptually simple and easy to compute. For studying GIS phenomena, the paper proposes a socio-technology model, focusing on nine basic variables apportioned under information communications technology (ICT) access, diffusion, usage, and skills. The model uses raw data extracted from 154 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) member countries ...