Demographics

Recent Report from Rob Atkinson at the Progressive Policy Institute
On the basis of current trends in computer ownership, 90 percent of households will
have computers in 2005. Trends in Internet access suggest that 90 percent of households will
be connected even sooner -- in 2003, suggesting access through other devices such as TVs in
addition to computers. Even if Internet penetration only grows as fast as television
ownership (and its present exponential rate of growth cannot continue indefinitely, given the
obvious upper limit of 100 percent), 90 percent of households will have Internet access by
2005. More conservatively still, if it grew at the rate of radio ownership, 90 percent would be
by at the same rate as VCR ownership, by 2018.

Privacy

Collection of recet article links from techWeb
1. SECURITY: PRIVATE MATTERS
What makes a good privacy policy? That's the question for IT pros trying to strike a balance between corporate imperative and user confidentiality.

Say Hello To The Chief Privacy Officer

Internet Privacy Debate Is Dead

Software Helps Ensure Net Privacy

For Analyzing Website Performance, E-Business View Is a Sneaky Sleuth

Legal Proceeding Could Impact Privacy Debate

Protecting Privacy

Security

CNN Interactive: Insiders the biggest security threat
Jun 21 2001: Malicious hackers are much less of a threat to companies than disgruntled current and former employees, according to a new study.

The study, carried out by Digital Research, found that 57 percent of firms say their worst breaches of security occurred when their own users accessed unauthorized information.

The next major problem happened when user accounts remained functioning after those users had left the company concerned. Only 21 percent of the corporate respondents said external cracking was their biggest security concern.

Cracking tends to receive much higher media attention because companies are generally reluctant to disclose internal security breaches.

Analysts commented that corporate users tend to have access to far more information than they need to do their job.

Broadband demographics

Arbitron New Media: A third of US Net users have broadband
Jun 22 2001: Thirty-one percent of US Internet users have broadband access at home, work, or school, according to Arbitron.

Fifty-eight percent have broadband access only at work, 27 percent have it only at home, while 15 percent have broadband at both locations.

Of those college students with access, 38 percent say they are likely to get broadband at home when they are finished college.

Broadband users spend about as much time online as they do consuming traditional media. The average time online per day per broadband user is two hours and 16 minutes.

Every day, broadband users listen to the radio for an average of two hours and 28 minutes, watch television for an average of two hours and 11 minutes, and listen to music for an average of one hour and 25 minutes. Forty-five percent say they consume more than one media product at a time. This research was carried out in conjunction with Coleman, a media research firm.

Ecommerce

E-Commerce Times: Online retailers finally reaching profit
Jun 21 2001: In a new report, McKinsey & Company says the age of profitability has begun in the world of ecommerce.

At least 20 percent of pureplay dotcoms are now making an operating profit, but McKinsey says the gap between the successful and the struggling online firms is growing all the time.

The strongest pureplays are now outperforming their traditional competitors, and have higher operating margins. While most online retailers are improving their balance sheets, online content providers are still mired in difficulties.

The McKinsey research confirms this week’s report by ActivMedia that bricks-and-clicks firms are most likely to be successful online.

Overall, the McKinsey report found that clothing sites had the highest average operating margin, at 21 percent. This is also the only category with a positive operating margin. In other reasonably healthy categories such as books, gifts, and electronics, the average operating margin is negative.

Privacy and data collection

Statistical Research: Consumers wary of giving personal informationJun 08 2001: A new report from Statistical Research has found that 67 percent of Internet users typically abandon websites when they are asked to give personal information.

Experienced Internet users are slightly less likely to take flight. Sixty-five percent will leave a site when asked for personal data, in comparison with 72 percent of relatively new Internet users.

Just over a fifth of Internet users admitted giving false personal information in order to gain access to a site.

Over half of those polled said they were very concerned about the misuse of credit card information given online, the selling or sharing of personal information by site owners, and the prevalence of cookies that track online activity.

The study also found that Internet users are far more likely to trust the websites of offline stores they already shop at, or of products they already buy.

Twenty-eight percent said they would be “much more likely” to give personal information to a site that had a guarantee against credit card fraud, while 26 percent felt similarly about sites with prominent privacy policy.

Will they come? (UK edition)

Oftel report on access and demand, feb 2001

Oftel reports access at about 34% of homes, with another 15% planning to come online soon. About half the remainder had no plans to go online, for various reasons (about 1/3 access/cost issues).

Ecommerce

Boston Consulting Group: Eretailers spending less to acquire customers

Customer acquisition costs for online retailers in Q1 2001 were just over a third of what they were in Q1 2000, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

In a report produced in conjunction with Shop.org, the Group found that the average cost for online retailers to acquire a customer was USD18 in Q1 2001, down from USD45 in Q1 2000, and USD71 in Q4 1999.

P&L

ActivMedia Research: Half of for-profit sites making money

Jun 06 2001: New research from ActivMedia has found that over half of for-profit websites are already profitable.

The research shows that the average time taken to reach profitability is two years.

Ecommerce

Online Shopping by AOL Members Reaches All-time Record in March Quarter;

AOL Members Spend $6.7 Billion Shopping Online In the FirstThree Months Of 2001
America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that AOL members spent an all-time record $6.7 billion shopping online in the first three months of 2001. [Business Wire]

Content partners

Resume.com to Offer Resume Writing Services for Boston.com's BostonWorks; Additional Services Include Career Counseling and Interview Preparation
Resume.com Solutions Inc., owner of Resume.com and 1-800-WRITERS, announced today that it is providing business writing services for the BostonWorks career management section of Boston.com. [Business Wire]

Access

KC online

[From Scotti] According to Industry Standard, Kansas City has 51% of the metro
population online at work or home on a regular basis, with a total
online population of 800,000.
Industry Standard states that Kansas City is "more connected" than
Dallas, Atlanta, NY, Chicago, Phoenix and St. Louis.
The 40 major communities and 15 counties which comprise the bi-state
Kansas City metro region have all embraced the vision of Kansas City
as "America's SmartCity®".

Ecommerce

Consumer spendign at AOL up 70%
(Dulles, Va.) AOL Time Warner Inc. said on Wednesday that its AOL members
spent a record $6.7 billion shopping online in the first three months of
2001. This was up 70% from a year ago. The figure included travel
purchases, one of the largest online markets.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010523/wr/media_aoltimewarner_shopping_dc_1.html

Revenue streams

AOL To Raise Monthly Fee By 9%; Revenue Expected to Jump
Dulles, Va. -- Dulles-based America Online announced on Tuesday that it
has raised the price of its unlimited Internet service by 9% to $23.90 per
month.
[NOTE: this continues to imply that ISP services can be quite profitable for us, IF we do not have to spend significant funds marketing them]

ECommerce

Clicks and mortars thrive
Jupiter Media Metrix says online retailers will ring up $34 billion in sales this year, increasing to $104 billion in 2005 and $130 billion in 2006. Those predictions are down slightly from last year's forecasts ($36 billion in 2001 and $118 billion in 2005). The firm points out that in March 2000, 62 percent of the top 50 most-visited retail Web sites were Net-only operations; the remainder were brick-and-click stores. This March, only 44 percent of the top 50 were Web pure-plays.

Business models

Mondex: UK users would pay for content
May 18 2001: Internet users in the UK would be willing to pay for online content, according to a new survey from Mondex.
Of those polled, 57 percent said they would pay for online searches, archived news articles, music downloads, weather reports, railway timetables, online directory assistance, horoscopes and financial advice.

They would be willing to pay the most (GBP1.12 each time) for financial information, followed by pre-paying for mobile airtime online (GBP1.11), playing an online game (GBP1), and online searches (GBP0.69).

Men tended to be more extravagant than women, saying they would pay up to an average of GBP0.19 per item than women would.

Mondex says that paid online content could be worth GBP2.6 billion a month in revenue for UK firms.

Demographics

comScore: Internet access goes mainstream
May 18 2001: Internet access among African-American households, low-income households, and seniors in the US rose steadily last year, according to ComScore Networks.

Internet penetration among African-American households rose 35 percent between April 2000 and April 2001, and now stands at 51 percent.

Access among households with annual incomes under USD25,000 grew 28 percent in the same period to reach 36 percent, while access among households earning USD25,000 to USD50,000 increased by 17 percent to 56 percent.

Connectivity among households whose eldest member is over 64 rose by 25 percent to 27 percent, while connectivity for those aged 55 to 64 rose by 20 percent to 57 percent.

ComScore also found that households in the West of the US are most likely to have Internet access, followed by those in the Northeast, and the South. Overall, 58 percent of all US households now have Internet access.

Kids

Note: Kids see value in interactive activity more than in information. This means, in a local context especially, that we have to be prepared with "Safe Surfing" training for kids - how to watch for and avoid online predators. We'll also need to develop a volunteer force to monitor kid-oriented sections of BCnextDoor.

Any references for this would be appreciated.

Revenues/Hosting fees

PrarieNet fee schedule for hosting nonprofits.

Found that nonprofits prefer a traditional invoice to being asked to make a donation.

Access/Training

PrarieNet community computer classes
Interesting source for training curriculum and approaches. Prarienet is an ISP for about 1500 people and 500 organizatioons in Champaigne IL. Offers sets of 5 classes for complete novices and intermediate users for $45.

Services/Low income

Connecting Communities of Color
by Ann Stjern, Technology Access Foundation Connecting Communities of Color Consortium (C3) is comprised of 17 community agencies and service providers in Seattle and 6 in Tacoma, Washington. TAF built this consortium with existing community organizations to focus on providing access to current technology and technical curricula to traditionally under-served populations. Through strategic planning and a unified voice, C3 works together to bridge the information technology gap. Additionally, C3 is the vehicle for providing the programs and services of the Virtual Institute, which includes online instructional courses and open lab hours

Services/education

Building the digital brdge in Boston

Fascinating article showing the power of coimmunity based education that brings Net technology to the schools.

Services - education

Friendship Bytes: Online Mentors Help Students Bridge The Divide
by Nadia Kalman and Greg Warner, iMentor
iMentor, a New York City organization, uses the Web to connect inner-city students with adult mentors based on their personal and professional interests. iMentor works closely with schools, after-school programs, community technology centers, and other programs that serve young people from low-income neighborhoods.

Access/Minorities

Pew Internet Trust Report Oct 2000
More than three and a half million African-American adults have gone online for the first time in the past year. That has nearly doubled the size of the black online population from what it was a year ago. Women have driven the growth of the black Internet population and they outnumber African-American men with Internet access. In addition, parents are a large part of this expanding population. Moreover, there are signs that the growth of the online black population will outpace the growth of the online white population and eventually the proportions of each group online could be equal. Many blacks who do not now have Internet access say they plan to go online.



36% of all African-American adults, about 7.5 million people, now have Internet access; 23% of African-Americans were online in 1998.
48% of all African-American Internet users have gone online for the first time in the past year.
61% of the newcomers are women and, overall, the proportion of black women to black men in the Internet population is 56% to 44%.
46% of African-Americans who are not online say they probably or definitely will go online in the future. This compares to 40% of offline whites who say they plan to go online.

Nonprofits - churches online

Pew Internet Trust report Dec 2000
The survey reveals that the Internet is being used being used by congregations to strengthen the faith and spiritual growth of their members, evangelize and perform missions in their communities and around the world, and perform a wide variety of pious and practical activities for their congregations. Many believe the Internet has helped these faith communities become better places.


83% of those responding to our survey say that their use of the Internet has helped congregational life – 25% say it has helped a great deal.
81% say the use of email by ministers, staffs, and congregation members has helped the spiritual life of the congregation to some extent – 35% say it has helped a great deal.
91% say email has helped congregation members and members of the staff stay more in touch with each other – 51% say it has helped a great deal.
63% say email has helped the congregation connect at least a bit more to the surrounding community – 17% say it has helped a lot.

Access/usage

Pew Internet Trust report feb 2000Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet audience-measuring company, reported that the average time a person spent online totaled 14.9 hours during the month of December, a drop from 16.5 hours in November and 17.5 hours in October.

Our data suggest the time the average person spent online on the average day dropped by a few minutes between May-June and November-December. There was a slight decrease at the end of the year in the number of people who use the Internet for two or more hours and a slight increase in the number who use the Internet for between an hour and two hours a day. At the same time, our surveys also show that the total number of American adults using the Internet on a typical day increased in the second half of 2000. In May-June, 52% of Internet users were online during a typical day; in the last months of 2000, 56% of Internet users were online during a typical day. That represents an increase from 47 million American adults using the Internet per day at mid-year to over 58 million per day at the end of the year.

Access

Pew Internet Trust Report Feb 2000
Comparing figures gathered in our tracking survey in May and June with figures gathered between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we find that the number of American adults with Internet access grew from about 88 million to more than 104 million in the second half of 2000. Furthermore, we began asking new questions in November and December that allow us to calculate how many children have Internet access. The responses to those questions show that 45% of America’s children – or more than 30 million of those under age 18 – have Internet access. Fully 73% of those between ages 12 and 17 have Internet access and 29% of those under 12 have been online.

The increase in online access by all kinds of Americans highlight the fact that the Internet population looks more and more like the overall population of the United States. However, there are still some notable demographic differences when it comes to access. The most dramatic disparities are defined by income and age. The income gap looks this way: 82% of those living in households with more than $75,000 in income now have Internet access, compared to 38% of those in households earning less than $30,000. The good news is that those at the low end of the economic scale are coming online relatively rapidly. Only 28% of those in lower-income households were online in May-June.

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