[RTC List] (4) Pew Internet Project report on home broadband adoption

Sat Jul 5 14:53:21 PDT 2008

Thanks to all for contributing to this important refinement of what  
constitutes Internet usage,  access and interest  ...

In my work in courts, I came across the Travis County (Texas) District  
Clerk's I-jury application that began offering jurors the choice of appearing in  
person for qualification and impanelment, or to do so online. While they  
expected strong participation due to Austin being considered a "wired" city,  they 
were amazed when the numbers doubled and tripled their estimates. 

Critics of I-jury suspected that high usage by white, upper income users  
would skew the jury pool, but this has not proven to be true. Online  
participants cover a wide spectrum of the community including seniors, rural,  low 
income, recent immigrants and people of color - those considered by Pew  to have low 
interest in broadband. The general consensus is that the  attractiveness of 
not having to appear in person drove otherwise low interest  users to friends, 
neighbors, kids, grandkids and libraries to use someone else's  computer and 
broadband connection if they didn't have one themselves.

An analysis of the I-jury program:
_http://www.courtinnovation.org/_uploads/documents/Crossing_the_Digital_Divide
.pdf_ 
(http://www.courtinnovation.org/_uploads/documents/Crossing_the_Digital_Divide.pdf) 

A direct link to I-jury:
_http://www.co.travis.tx.us/ijury_ (http://www.co.travis.tx.us/ijury) 

Happy Independence Day weekend !!!!!!!

Chris Crawford
_www.justiceserved.com_ (http://www.justiceserved.com) 

`````````````````````````
In a message dated 7/5/2008 11:05:16 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
inducere at gmail.com writes:

To  interject into this discussion:

I know a few older folks, and I suppose  they could afford broadband or any 
form of internet access, but they really  don't like computers and besides 
their fingers cannot even use a typewriter  anymore.  More, a computer monitor is 
a TV to them.  Now, I happen  to like computers and have broadband access.  
Here is the rub, as the  saying goes.  I get phone calls from my older friends 
who ask me to "look  up" information for them.  One of my friends still uses a 
rotary  phone.  Do you remember them?  He dials me, as he says, to ask to  
find out everything from cat maladies to the arcane writings on humor by the  
Earl of Shaftesbury.

So my question is, of those who do not have any  internet access directly, 
how many have indirect  access?

Dan

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 10:19 AM, Bob Morse <_bob at morsemedia.net_ 
(mailto:bob at morsemedia.net) > wrote:

Our old friend Andrew Cohill   makes a good point on his blog:

"The Pew folks have never asked  broadband users if they would go back to 
dial up. And you need to ask that  question in order to be able to understand the 
survey results of the dial up  question in the appropriate context....In 
fact, I've been asking that  question to rooms full of people for many years, and 
I have never had a  single broadband user stand up and say, "Oh yea, broadband 
is waaaay too  fast for me. I'm switching back to dial up next week.""

_http://www.designnine.com/news/node/1184_ 
(http://www.designnine.com/news/node/1184) 

If you  haven't had broadband it's quite possible you can't imagine what 
value it  has or how it can enhance your life by opening up possibilities not 
feasible  on a 56k modem.

Tina Nerat wrote:  

Sean, thanks for  sending the links. I thought I'd add a few comments. I was 
in Oregon most  of the past week and saw the articles in their newspapers. I 
thought what  was in the press was oriented to low income urban populations. 
The story  is a bit different for rural America, and they did touch on rural 
areas a  little bit. One has to dig for the references to rural America. Here are 
 some of the rural references I saw in the report. Tina 
Broadband  growth was strong among older and lower-middle  income 
Americans,  as well as rural Americans. 
Non-broadband  users cite a number of reasons for not using the  service 
including  availability, price, and lack of interest. 
- 14% of dial-up users – and  24% of dial-up users in rural America – say 
that broadband service   
would have to become available  where they live. 

Lack  of broadband availability looms in the mind of some dial-up  users. 
-  Nonetheless, the fact that  rural residents are more likely to report that 
broadband  isn't 
available where they live  indicates that infrastructure availability comes 
into play  in 
broadband  adoption. 
Fixed  wireless has greater role in the home broadband  market. 
Non-internet  users – one-quarter of adults – represent the largest  group 
of  those without broadband. 
-  43% of non-internet users are  over the age of 65 or, put differently, 65% 
of senior 
citizens do not use the  internet. 
- 43% of non-internet users  have household incomes under $30,000 per year. 

____________________________________

From: _list-bounces at redwoodtech.org_ (mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org)  
[_mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org_ (mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org) ] 
On Behalf Of Sean  McLaughlin
Sent:  Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:19 PM
To: RTC
Subject: [RTC List] Pew Internet  Project report on home broadband adoption

_Home Broadband Adoption 2008 Report (PDF)_ 
(http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_2008.pdf) , Pew Internet  & American Life Project
_http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_2008.pdf_ 
(http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_2008.pdf) 

Press  Release July 2, 2008
_http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/305/press_release.asp_ 
(http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/305/press_release.asp) 

Among  some interesting findings:

"Americans who are not online – 27% of  adults who do not use the internet – 
are likely to be older (their median  age is 61) and have low incomes. When 
non-internet users are asked why  they don't use the internet, here is what 
they say:  

·  33% of  non-users say they are not interested.  
·  12% say  they don't have access.  
·  9% say  it is too difficult or frustrating.  
·  7% say  it is too expensive.  
·  7% say  it is a waste of time. 
"Economic factors play a large role in why some  people don't have broadband, 
but about one in ten non-broadband users say  that service isn't available 
where they live," said Horrigan. "Beyond  price and availability, some 
non-broadband users simply don't see the need  for having a high-speed connection at 
home." 

Happy Independent  Day!

-- 
Sean McLaughlin
Executive Director
Access Humboldt
P.O. Box 157, Eureka, CA 95502
tel: 707-476-1798
dir: 707-476-2873
fax: 707-476-1702
cel: 707-616-2381
e: _sean at accesshumboldt.net_ (mailto:sean at accesshumboldt.net) 
web:  _accesshumboldt.net_ (http://accesshumboldt.net/) 

"Local Voices Through Community Media"

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