
This is the Australian component of the World Internet Project (WIP), a collaborative, survey-based project looking at the social, cultural, political and economic impact of the Internet and other new technologies. Founded by the UCLA Center for the Digital Future in the United States in 1999 (now based at the USC Annenberg Center), the WIP has more than 25 university-based partners in countries and regions all over the world.
The key component of the collaboration is an agreement to undertake regular sample surveys of internet use and non-use in the participant’s country including a series of agreed-upon core questions, and to share this data with other partners. The critical defining characteristics of this research are that it is longitudinal, enables cross-country comparison and includes both internet users and non-users.
Progress in 2010
In 2010 we released our second main report The Internet in Australia 2010. This report generated significant interest from the media and across government and industry. We also prepared our data for submission in the third International Report prepared by the WIP and wrote an introduction to the internet in Australia for this forthcoming publication. We wrote a number of articles, gave presentations and interviews.
Plans for 2011
We will be conducting the third survey of internet use and non-use in 2011. We will also be collaborating with colleagues to develop articles based on our data examining digital engagement, older Australians’ use of the internet, Politics and the internet, mobile internet and television and the internet.
Impact
The year started with an extended piece in Crikey by Meg Simons looking at the future of news based on pre-released WIP data. When the report was released in May we put out three press releases. The Australian Financial Review published an article entitled Australian Internet Users Support NBN on 17th May. Both Julian Thomas and Scott Ewing conducted interviews with a number of news outlets following the release of the report. Including radio stations 2HD in Newcastle and ABC Wide Bay. Scott Ewing attended the World Internet Project Annual Meeting in Lisbon, giving presentations to the WIP Policy Workshop, the WIP Annual meeting and the Portuguese government’s Forum on the Information Society – Internet Governance. Scott also presented at the CRESC’s Social Life of Methods conference in Oxford. Scott completed a book chapter on online retail that will be published in an upcoming book Landscapes of Urban Consumption. Julian was invited to give a talk on digital engagement at the Attorney-General’s Department (Commonwealth); and also participated in the popular Melbourne Conversations series, in a forum on social and mobile media. This forum was broadcast on ABC2, and on Slow TV, the Monthly magazine’s TV channel.
New Knowledge Generated
The World Internet Project (Australia) is the only publicly available sample survey of Australians’ evolving use of the internet. With each new survey, the comparative value of our data increases. This year our key findings included Australians’ high level of support for the NBN, Australians liberal but not libertarian attitude to internet regulation, the increasing importance of the internet as source of news and information and for entertainment, the growth of online commerce in Australia and the continuing reticence of Australians to pay for content which raises significant issues for those content providers considering the shift to user pays models. The WIP data and our analysis also provided insight into evolving social networks online and ways in which the digital divide is be reshaped and reconfigured. Our longitudinal approach has enabled us to identify those uses of the net that are growing such as watching video online and those that are not, such as listening to radio online.