17 Aug
2005
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divides
and IBNIS
A new set of survey reports
by New Delhi market researcher JuxtConsult - promoted as "perhaps
the largest ever survey conducted in India to measure the
impact of the online medium on consumer trends and demands"
- offers a perspective on use of the net in India.
India Online is based on 3,000 telephone and 30,000 online
survey responses about 'lifestyle and web use'. It argues
that around 17.5 million urban dwellers in India use the net
consistently, with an additional 5.2 million using it occasionally.
In aggregate that is 9% of all urban Indians. The overall
penetration rate for the subcontinent remains under 5% and
user growth last year was only 8%.
Supposedly 80% of users have been going online for over three
years. Most go online frequently: around 40% use the net over
five times a day. 23% use it two to five times a day; under
20% go online less than once a day. Around one-third of urban
users are online for over three hours each day, with 11% online
throughout the day. Roughly 50% are broadly 'involved in business'
(including 22% senior executives); 20% are students. Supposedly
75% have a car; 50% have a credit card and over 50% are in
the 19 to 30 age cohort (an additional 22% are between 31
and 40). Users under the age of 18 are rare.
Potential concerns about data quality aside - online everyone
is blonde, buffed, bright and BMW-equipped - the survey suggests
that persistent digital
divides in India are a matter of wealth and expectations
rather than merely infrastructure. Throwing fibre, wireless
or simputers at the bush may thus be disappointing.
OS in Africa
There is a different perspective in the new Open Source Toolkit
from Africa's Bridge's organisation.
The Free/open source software (FOSS) policy in Africa:
A toolkit for policy-makers and practitioners resource
is targeted at governments exploring integration of FOSS into
strategies for social and economic development. It offer an
overview of how FOSS fits into national ICT policy-making,
identifies areas for policy decisions relating to FOSS and
highlights activities across the continent. The discussion
includes recommendations on an approach to FOSS policy-making
and discusses development goals.
The Toolkit also provides a background reading list
of key documents and reports, along with a list of organisations
working in the field. It includes country-specific information
on FOSS policy activities for Africa. Like other Bridges documentation
it is a practical response to digital divides.
It is arguably the first major overview of areas in which
African governments can make interventions. Mapping of African
strategic approaches regarding FOSS has been poor and, as
the Toolkit notes, many advocacy efforts have failed
to address linkages between FOSS and broader social/economic
development goals.
IBNIS and the audience of one
It is beat-up time in the UK again, with release of Neighbourhoods
on the Net: The nature and impact of internet-based neighbourhood
information systems (PDF),
a report by Roger Burrows, Nick Ellison & Brian Woods for
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The report has been greeted with claims that "internet sites
identifying the best places to live may be deepening the country's
social divide" and that
the gap between the haves and have-nots may soon become more
obvious because of information websites that allow househunters
to select their ideal neighbourhoods. As Internet-based Neighbourhood
Information Systems (IBNIS)
allow buyers to identify areas with the best schools or lowest
crime rate, society is set to become more segregated. Using
IBNIS such as www.upmystreet.co.uk, www.homecheck.co.uk, www.statistics.gov.uk
and even www.chavtowns.co.uk the better off will be able to
move into neighbourhoods populated by the kind of people that
they would most want to invite round for a drink.
Burrows commented
It seems only a matter of time before the kind of powerful
neighbourhood search sites available in the United States
start to reinforce the divide between the more and less prosperous
locations in the UK. This is potentially worrying. ...The
technology available cannot only sort people according to
basic data such as their incomes, but also according to individual
tastes, consumer preferences, lifestyle habits and so on.
Until recently these ‘segmentation’ processes have been largely
invisible to the public — but with the emergence of IBNIS
it’s entirely possible people will start using them to sort
themselves out into neighbourhoods where their neighbours
are less diverse and more like themselves.
That is consistent with concerns articulated by Joseph Turow
and Cass Sunstein about the close nature of many online communities
and microcasting to audiences of one. Burrows continued that
While no one would want to prevent public access to neighbourhood
information, we should recognise the potential implications
for disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the people who live in
them. At a minimum it would be sensible to insist that IBNIS
websites specify their sources and make it clear how their
information was compiled. We also recommend that local people
are given opportunities to challenge the way their neighbourhoods
are being portrayed, if necessary.
In practice it is difficult to see how what challenges would
be effective.
More broadly, it is unclear whether online profiling of neighbourhoods
is that much more persuasive than the 'soft networks' used by
many people - word of mouth from friends and contacts - and
personal visits. Some consumers, of course, are attracted by
diversity or driven by factors such availability of services
and accommodation costs rather than ethnic/other homogeneity.
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