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.

link

P&L:

ActivMedia Research: More Net firms in profit than might be expected


ActivMedia Research reports that 61 percent of mid-sized online
businesses and 39 percent of large online firms are profitable.
posted by Robin Gaster at 12:05 PM




Online usage:


Jupiter Media Metrix: Internet users in US spending longer onlineApr 18 2001: US Internet users are going online more often and staying online for longer, according to new data from Jupiter Media Metrix.


US users went online on an average of 15 days in March 2001, up from 14.5 days in March 2000, and 14.2 days in March 1999. They spent an average of 20.2 hours looking at Internet sites in March 2001, up from 15.9 hours last year and 12.8 hours the year before.
posted by Robin Gaster at 12:02 PM




Online demographics

Nielsen NetRatings: Blue-collar workers rush online


The number of US households headed by blue-collar workers soared from
6.2 million in March 2000 to 9.5 million in March 2001, according to
Nielsen NetRatings.

posted by Robin Gaster at 12:01 PM




Health:
Harris Interactive: 100 million US Net users are 'cyberchondriacs'
Apr 25 2001: Over half of visitors to health websites find those sites through portals and search engines, according to new research from Harris Interactive.

Nearly 100 million US adults look for health information online every month. On average, they do this three times a month but heavy users may do so up to six times a month.


Fifty-two percent look for health information using a search engine or portal, 24 percent go directly to a health website, and 16 percent go to general sites that may have a section on health issues.


Heavy and medium Internet users are more likely than light users to go to a search engine or portal first when looking for health information.



posted by Robin Gaster at 8:19 AM




How many online in the US?:

U.S. & Canada
COUNTRY DATE NUMBER % POP SOURCE
U.S.
November 2000 153.84 million 55.83 ***NielsenNetRatings
October 2000 149.6 million 54.29 ***NielsenNetRatings
September 2000 148.03 million 53.72 ***NielsenNetRatings
August 2000 146.9 million 53.31 ***NielsenNetRatings
July 2000 143.96 million 52.24 ***NielsenNetRatings
June 2000 134.2 million 48.7 ***NielsenNetRatings
February 2000 123.6 million 45.33 *** NielsenNetRatings
January 2000 122.8 million 45.04 *** NielsenNetRatings
July 1999 106.3 million 39.37 *** NielsenNetRatings
May 1999 101 million 37.4 *** NielsenNetRatings
April 1999 95.8 million 35.4 *** NielsenNetRatings
April 1999 92 million 34 * CommerceNet/Nielsen
March 1999 83 million 30.7 * IntelliQuest
January 1999 79.4 million 29.3 * IntelliQuest
October 1998 73 million 27.8 * IntelliQuest
August 1998 79 million 29 * CommerceNet/Nielsen
February 1998 62 million 23.0 * IntelliQuest
November 1997 56 million 21.0 * IntelliQuest
June 1997 51 million 19.17 * IntelliQuest
April 1997 40 - 45 million 16.16 * FIND/SVP

posted by Robin Gaster at 8:16 AM




Greenfield Online: US B2C spending up in March
Apr 26 2001: The latest round of the Online Retail Index from Forrester and Greenfield Online shows that online consumer spending rose by USD100 million in March to USD3.5 billion for the month.

The number of households shopping online stayed steady in March at 13.5 million while the amount spent online per consumer rose slightly to USD263, from the February figure of USD248.


Some small-ticket categories showed healthy growth in March, including software, books, videos, and office supplies, while revenues dropped in others, including music, apparel, jewelry, flowers, and health and beauty products.


As far as more expensive goods and services were concerned, most categories saw increased revenues in March, with the exception of appliances, furniture, airline tickets and car rental.

posted by Robin Gaster at 8:11 AM




Women with three or more children have the highest affinity for the communications/email sector, followed by games and TV websites. Mothers with one or two children have the highest affinity for family websites, while mothers with only one child have the highest affinity for fashion and beauty websites. [from NetValue Online]
posted by Robin Gaster at 8:09 AM