[Air-L] Internet User Research
Catherine Middleton
lists at catherinemiddleton.ca
Mon Jun 29 22:20:01 PDT 2009
Hello John (and Air-L),
Thanks for sharing your research. Like some others on the list, I'm
not surprised by your results at all. I've done a lot of work with
colleagues looking at Statistics Canada Internet Use Survey data,
trying to understand how people who say yes, they use the internet,
actually spend their time online. The most recent data are from 2007,
and one of the key findings is that combining the frequency of online
access (e.g. daily, weekly etc.) with hours online reveals that about
45% of the (online) population are online daily AND for more than 5
hours a week (high intensity users). Given that about 70% of the total
adult (>17) population were online at the time of this survey, just
over 30% of adult Canadians were using the internet daily and for more
than 5 hours a week as of late 2007. So arguably, intensity of use is
low. Along the same lines, the only things that 50% or more of the
total Canadian adult population (not just internet users) were doing
online in 2007 were general web browsing and email.
As has been noted here, some people in the tech sector and some
internet researchers tend to discount these data, maybe not being able
to imagine that many people really do spend less than 5 hours online
per week.
It's important to distinguish between internet adoption and use, and
much more work is needed to understand what use really means. Hours
online isn't a particularly good measure of use (especially as people
adopt mobile phones with ubiquitous access), but it's been a starting
point for many studies. The qualitative work John is doing provides
good insights into real usage behaviours, and work to find good
measures of engagement based on quantitative data continues.
If you're interested in this topic, my work in this area is available
at http://www.broadbandresearch.ca/ourresearch/papers.html (scroll
down for conference papers based on Statistics Canada data).
Also look for the papers from the "Beyond Broadband Access: Data-Based
Information Policy For a New Administration Workshop" to be held in
Washington, DC, this September.
For some recent industry data, see 2008/2009 Accenture US Consumer
Technology Research Findings http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/040BE0BE-1FE5-45DD-9791-AC1D40A45A2C/0/Accenture_211008_DL_Survey_09_Media_Deck_V09.pdf
Then of course there is another entire discussion about the disconnect
between discourses about the need for, and use of next generation
broadband networks, and the data about what the average user actually
does online.
Cheers,
Catherine Middleton
Ted Rogers School of Management
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
catherine.middleton at ryerson.ca
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