[Air-l] Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #60 - 13 msgs

[Charles Ess]

Regarding international comparative data:

While the data are changing, and some good online resources have already
been recommended, let me also suggest:
Carleen F. Maitland and Johannes M. Bauer, "National Level Culture and
Global diffusion: the Case of the Internet," in Charles Ess (Ed.), _Culture,
Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village_, pp.
87-120.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001.
Building on previous efforts, Maitland and Bauer develop a framework for
quantitative approaches to technology diffusion that will be of value in its
own right as well as it includes numerous sources for the sorts of data
you're looking for, including data for the OECD.
In addition (quoting from my introduction):
Previous research has tended to focus on matters of economy and
infrastructure, with relatively little work in the area of culture - in
part, because earlier work has shown that economic factors are the stronger
predictors of technology adoption. In order to test these findings and their
own enhancements of earlier diffusion theory, Maitland and Bauer build
especially on the work of Hofstede and Herbig to include three cultural
factors in their study: uncertainty avoidance, gender equality, and English
language ability. 
Their extensive statistical study draws on a considerable range of data
sources, as available for 185 countries during the time period between 1991
and 1997. In examining Internet growth between countries, they find that
cultural variables are less significant in explaining adoption than economic
or infrastructure variables: of these, teledensity, International Call Cost,
and School Enrollment emerge as the strongest predictors - the last finding
supporting the importance of education in development. For that, the
cultural factor of English language ability also plays a significant role.
In analyzing growth within countries, their data likewise uncovers a
comparatively stronger role for economic factors - in this case, the number
of PC¹s per capita. But cultural factors - namely, uncertainty avoidance and
gender empowerment - also play a significant role.

Beyond Maitland and Bauer, you may want to look at some of the reports on
specific cultural domains - Germany/Austria/Switzerland (Hrachovec),
Switzerland (Rey), Kuwait (Wheeler), Korea (Yoon, Fouser), India
(Kenniston), and Thailand (Hongladarom) as these include sources for
country-specific data.

Good luck and good hunting -

Charles Ess
Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave.                          Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO  65802  USA            FAX: 417-873-7435
Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/Departments/phil-relg/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC 2002: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/
"...to be non-violent, we must not wish for anything on this earth which the
meanest and lowest of human beings cannot have." -- Gandhi

> From: air-l-request at aoir.org
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 11:31:01 -0400 (EDT)
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #60 - 13 msgs
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 13:17:23 -0400
> From: Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>
> To: aoir list <air-l at aoir.org>
> Cc: wenhong chen <wenchen at chass.utoronto.ca>,
> Jeff Boase <jeff.boase at utoronto.ca>
> Subject: [Air-l] international data
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> 
> Wenhong Chen, Jeff Boase and I are looking for Reliable comparative data
> on computer and internet use rates across countries -- as many countries
> as possible, but OECD + a few other biggies at least.