<nettime> internet accounting 101 digest [cisler, wohl]

["nettime's_beancounter" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

"Steve Cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>
     Re: <nettime> Markle report
"Amy Wohl" <amy@wohl.com>
     RE: <nettime> What is "Internet accountability"?

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From: "Steve Cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Markle report
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:59:46 -0700

Her's another study that I find more interesting than the Markle
report. The San Jose Mercury News' writer David Plotnikoff discussed
it here:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/daveplot/dp062101.htm

Steve Cisler
cisler@pobox.com
home.inreach.com/cisler

Ipsos Reid press release on the report on why more people are not
online (around the world):

http://www.angusreid.com/media/content/displaypr.cfm?id_to_view=1244
Why Aren't More People Online?
No Need, no Interest, no Money Keep Billions Away Only an Estimated 6%
of the World is Online-Ipsos-Reid

© Ipsos-Reid
Public Release Date: June 13, 2001


Minneapolis, June 14, 2001-In the developed world, the Internet is
literally in your face. Opportunities to go online are everywhere, and
an estimated 400 hundred million people use the World Wide Web daily.

Yet according to international research firm Ipsos-Reid, billions of
people have neither heard of the Internet nor have any intention of
going online anytime soon. Even in countries such as the United
States, Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands, about one-third of people
who could use the Internet choose not to. In fact, of the world's 6
billion citizens, only about 6% are online. Why?

"The answer is twofold", says Brian Cruikshank, a senior vice
president with Ipsos-Reid and leader of the company's global
technology practice. "In the developed world, a substantial number of
people who could very easily go online have decided not to. They see
no compelling reason to be on the Web. The hype and the promise of the
Internet clearly hasn't impressed them-not yet, at least. For others
in nascent, less developed markets, the cost of accessing the Internet
competes with the cost for basic necessities and access availability
is very limited outside of urban areas."

As part of its global research program, Ipsos-Reid talked to people in
30 countries who aren't on the Internet and who say they have no plans
to be. The most frequently mentioned reasons for staying offline are
"have no need for the Internet" (40%), "no computer" (33%), "no
interest" (25%), "don't know how to use it" (16%), "cost" (12%), or
"no time" (10%). (For Internet usage rates by country, see chart.

In lesser developed countries, where access to the Internet is a
significant problem because of poverty and lack of a modern
communications infrastructure, cost and access are cited as barriers
more often than they are in major industrialized countries.

In urban India and urban South Africa, only one-quarter of the
population has access to the Internet, and fewer than 10% of people
report being recent users, the company found. In urban Russia, 83% of
respondents reported having no Internet access at all.

"Those growing up on the Internet will one day make up the bulk of the
population and there will be very few non-users down the road",
Cruikshank says. "But that's maybe an entire generation away in many
developing markets. In the meantime, you still have a massive
group-that is not going to disappear overnight-of potential users who
have the means yet are still not convinced of the Web's merits."

"The next crest of the Internet wave will come from markets that are
already well along the way-particularly in Western Europe-with the
most capacity for upside surprises, since their social structures and
communications infrastructures offer few barriers", Cruikshank says.
He continues, "In these countries, it's simply a matter of time before
more people go online-we have already started to see Europeans
representing a larger proportion of the global Internet population."

The study offers the caveat that in other parts of the world, there
are simply not enough access opportunities to go around. In other
words, there are more adults with intentions of going online than
there are adults with Internet access. These countries include South
Korea and urban markets in Malaysia, India, Mexico, and South Africa.

"Far from being dead, the Internet has a large growth potential
everywhere, but progress is destined to be slower than its most
enthusiastic advocates might have envisioned a few years ago",
concludes Cruikshank. To expand the reach of the Web in developing
countries, he says, public venues-libraries, schools, offices and
Internet cafés-will have to play a more crucial role.

Still, widespread availability is a long way off in the most populated
areas of the world. Overall, Ipsos-Reid found that 98% of respondents
own a television, 51% own a cell phone, 48% own a home computer-but
only 36% have home Internet access.

Methodology
These international survey research data were collected via Ipsos-Reid
's Global Express, a quarterly international omnibus survey. Fieldwork
was conducted in November and December 2000. Data are based on
individual surveys taken with a random sampling of adults (18+) across
35 national markets. The target sample size in each country was 500,
except for the United States and Germany, where 1,000 interviews were
conducted, India, where 1,700 interviews were conducted, and Turkey,
where 1,200 interviews were conducted. Within each country, the survey
results can be said to be within at least ± 4.5 percentage points of
what they would have been had the entire adult population been
surveyed (± 3.1 percentage points in the United States, ± 2.9
percentage points in Turkey, and ± 2.4 percentage points in India). In
20 of these 35 surveyed countries, the samples provide full national
coverage; in these countries the data were collected via randomized
telephone interviewing, with the exception of Poland, where in-person
door-to-door interviewing was conducted. Door-to-door interviewing was
also used in the non-national samples, whether quasi-national in
representation (Malaysia, Egypt, Argentina, Turkey, and Philippines)
or urban only (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, China, South Africa, India,
Russia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Chile, and Thailand) where the sample
coverage was limited to large cities.

About Ipsos-Reid
Ipsos-Reid has been tracking public opinion around the world for more
than 20 years and has become a leading provider of global public
opinion and market research to private, public and not for profit
organizations in over 50 countries. With more than 1,300 staff in 11
cities, Ipsos-Reid offers clients a full line of custom, syndicated,
omnibus and online research products and services.

It is best known for its line of Global Express opinion polls, the
World Monitor market trend quarterly, and The Face of the Web, the
most comprehensive study of global Internet usage and trends. It is a
member of Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the Top 10 research
groups in the world.

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From: "Amy Wohl" <amy@wohl.com>
Subject: RE: <nettime> What is "Internet accountability"?
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:45:42 -0400

I read the report of this study with some amusement.  I think you're
right.  This is a question of you get answers based on the questions you
asked.  I don't think this study considered the global nature of the
Internet at all.  It seems inordinately preoccupied with issues like
will people shop on the Internet?  My answer to that is on some level
Who Cares? And another level they will if it's the right value
proposition.

I read this immediately before reading the Industry Standard's report on
the use of the web at work and at home in June compared to last year and
the prior month.  Usage of the Internet at work is up enormously -- in
the US it's 43 million people or 39%.  They use the Internet at work
about 22 hours per month.  You will discover there that people visit
Amazon more often (by about 3x) than they visit Google.  I doubt that
they use Amazon as a search engine (although I find it a convenient
research tool on occasion). 

I think we ought to refuse to allow the government to regulate the
Internet on the grounds that it can't manage anything that moves faster
than its ability to understand it.  I've spent my time trying to explain
technology to Congressmen; it's not a winning proposition.

Amy Wohl 

Editor
Amy D. Wohl's Opinions
Wohl Associates
915 Montgomery Avenue
Narberth, PA 19072
(610) 667-4842
amy@wohl.com
www.wohl.com 

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-----Original Message-----
from: nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net
[mailto:nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net] On Behalf Of geert lovink
sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 9:21 PM
to: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
subject: <nettime> What is "Internet accountability"?
 <...>

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