Domesticating Computers and the Internet

The people who use computers and the ways they use them have changed substantially over the past 25 years. In the beginning highly educated people, mostly men, in technical professions used computers for work, but over time a much broader range of people are using computers for personal and domestic purposes. This trend is still continuing, and over a shorter time scale has been replicated with the use of the Internet. This paper uses data from four national surveys to document how personal computers and the Internet have become increasingly domesticated since 1995 and to explore the mechanisms for this shift. Now people log on more often from home than from places of employment and do so for pleasure and for personal purposes rather than for their jobs. Analyses comparing veteran Internet users to novices in 1998 and 2000 and analyses comparing the change in use within a single sample between 1995 and 1996 support two complementary explanations for how these technologies have become domesticated. Women, children, and less well-educated individuals are increasingly using computers and the Internet and have a more personal set of motives than well-educated men. In addition, the widespread diffusion of the PC and the Internet and the response of the computing industry to the diversity in consumers has led to a rich set of personal and domestic services.     

Does education help “old dogs” learn “new tricks”? The lasting impact of early-life education on technology use among older adults

Technological progress is often at the heart of improvements in quality of life. The development of personal computers (PCs) and the Internet are among the most important technological advances of the last century. PCs and the Internet have profoundly changed the way we access information, shop, view media, communicate, socialize, and spend our time. Despite the many benefits of computer and Internet use, certain population groups – especially low-educated and older consumers – have not yet fully adopted computer technology and the Internet in their daily lives. This paper estimates the effects of early-life education on computer and Internet use among older Italians. Using data on early-life educational attainment and computer and Internet use of older adults from the 2013 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we exploit a historical increase in compulsory schooling in Italy as an instrumental variable for education to estimate the effects of early-life education on the adoption of PCs and on current use of the Internet. We find large and statistically significant effects of early-life education on later-life technology use among older persons who obtained additional education due to increased schooling requirements. In our benchmark estimations, one additional year of schooling resulted in an eight percentage point increase in the probability of having ever used a computer and in a 12 percentage point increase in the probability of reporting to have at least good computer skills. Individuals affected by the reform were also six percentage points more likely to have used the Internet in the last week. These findings are robust across different sample selection and model specification strategies. Our analysis also suggests that occupational choice and computer use at work are important channels through which education affects the adoption and use of computers and the Internet. Our findings thus highlight the likely importance of early-life education for later-life computer and the Internet use and perhaps technology adoption more broadly.     

New Products of the 1980s and 1990s: The Diffusion of Household Technology in the Decade 1985-1995

The management of our households and the way we spend our leisure time has been greatly influenced by the introduction of various household technologies in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper compares the extent and rate of adoption of selected household products in Australian households. The diffusion of colour television sets, video cassette recorders, compact disc players, microwave ovens and personal computers into various types of households during the 1980s and 1990s was examined. This study found that different types of Australian households adopted new technology at different rates. The levels of ownership of various household technologies were highest for households with children. In general, one-adult households were slower to adopt new household technology when compared to other types of households. This paper speculates as to why one-person households are slower to purchase the latest in cooking and entertainment technology.     

Factors affecting the adoption of Internet banking in Tunisia: An integration theory of acceptance model and theory of planned behavior

This paper examines empirically the factors that affect the adoption of Internet banking by Tunisian bank customers. As base model, we use the technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB). The model employs security and privacy, self efficacy, government support, and technology support, in addition to perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, social norm, perceived behavior control and intention to use Internet banking. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the inter-correlations among the proposed constructs. A survey involving a total of 284 respondents is conducted and confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the measurement efficacies. Theoretically, this study confirms the applicability of the TAM model and TPB in predicting Internet banking adoption by Tunisian bank customers. The results allow banks' decision makers to develop strategies that can encourage the adoption of Internet banking. Banks should improve the security and privacy to protect consumers' personal and financial information, which will increase the trust of users. Government should also play a role to support bank industry by having a clear and solid law on this will ensure that customers are more confident for using Internet banking, ensuring a better Internet infrastructure and helps them to encourage users to use Internet banking. Lastly, Tunisian Banks should focus on those clients who already have a home PC, access Internet and more educated and younger since they are the most likely to adopt Internet banking.     

The Changing World of Home Technology: A Microsoft Case Study

We have entered the “digital decade,” when advances in technology will become deeply woven into home life. But how will technology evolve from an experience that is technologically challenging to an experience that is intuitive and fun? This article reviews new technologies and related possibilities that Microsoft is envisioning in the context of home life. As a specific example of the impact of home technology, we review lessons learned from the adoption and integration of a home Internet device from a user experience perspective. Looking ahead to the next decade, we then take a look at Microsoft's vision for the home of the future, examining new directions.     

Has the Internet accelerated the diffusion of new products?

In this paper we measure the effect of Internet adoption on consumers’ propensity to adopt a wide range of diffusing products. To do this, we utilize a rich panel of household surveys on purchases of relatively new technology products. Our results indicate that the Internet accelerates product diffusion, but with varying magnitude. In an attempt to determine the mechanisms underlying this effect, we find direct evidence that the Internet does not increase product awareness. However, we find suggestive evidence that the Internet increases adoption rates both through access to increased information about new products (via online research) and through online shopping. We also find that the magnitude of the Internet's effect is strongly tied to diffusion rates, and especially familiarity rates. This finding is consistent with Internet access having the greatest impact on the adoption of products with more developed marketing strategies (i.e., more developed information sources and online markets). Our findings indicate that the Internet helps bolster demand for products early in their diffusion process, and they suggest that improved access to information and the convenience of online shopping are likely the primary drivers of this effect. Consequently, to the extent that accelerated diffusion of new products is (on net) desirable, our findings may provide a further argument toward social promotion of Internet adoption.     

影响美国数字鸿沟的因素分析

不仅美国不同区域之间和各州之间存在数字鸿沟问题，而且在美国城乡、不同种族、不同年龄、不同家庭类型、不同教育水平和不同收入水平的家庭之闻都存在数字鸿沟问题。     

Determinants of Internet standards adoption: The case of South Korea

We develop an adoption model of infrastructure technologies and test it with survey data collected from companies in six industries in South Korea (hereafter: Korea). The implementation of a new Internet standard such as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) depends on the usefulness of the technology to the adopting organizations and the environment in which they operate. The adoption of IPv6 in Korea is mostly driven by a governmental strategy that created user demand, and normative pressure. IPv6 adoption in Korea is also driven by perceived resource concentration and power due to the uneven allocation of IPv4 addresses. Conversely, killer applications, technical sponsorship and financial factors had no influence on the adoption decision by Korean companies. Taken together, the findings of our explorative study suggest the need to consider technical as well as social and policy factors to understand the adoption dynamics of infrastructure technologies.     

农户水稻秸秆还田技术采纳意愿及其驱动路径分析

水稻秸秆还田技术是政府主推的一项绿色农业技术,探讨农户对这一技术的采纳意愿及驱动路径,有助于农业可持续发展与生态文明建设的顺利推进。本文基于改进的MOA理论框架,根据湖北省3市农户问卷调查数据,利用SEM模型,分析了采纳动机、采纳机会、能力（抗风险能力、操作能力）、信任与农户水稻秸秆还田技术采纳意愿间的逻辑关系。研究发现：采纳动机对农户采纳意愿影响不显著,而采纳机会、操作能力、抗风险能力则对其具有显著正向影响,且整体效应分别为0.665、0.291、0.644,信任则具有间接效应,其大小为0.304。从跨组回归来看,随着家庭年收入的提高、受教育程度的提升,抗风险能力对农户采纳意愿的影响逐渐增强;随着家庭种植面积的扩大,采纳动机和抗风险能力对采纳意愿的影响更强。根据以上结论,本文提出了政府应该加快水稻秸秆还田技术推广进程、完善风险补偿制度、加大秸秆还田技术研发力度、加强政府信任建设以及建立以政府为主导的秸秆回收体系等政策建议,以便增进农户对水稻秸秆还田技术的采纳意愿。     

Consumer Benefits of Public Services Over FTTH in Japan: Comparative Analysis of Provincial and Urban Areas by Using Discrete Choice Experiment

As the rapid development of broadband Internet access services continues, particularly fiber to the home (FTTH) services, the digital divide between provincial and urban areas is becoming a big social issue in Japan. We classify the issue into two problems: access to high-speed Internet, and service utilization of high-speed Internet access. We focus on the latter problem by quantitatively and qualitatively investigating whether a digital divide problem exists based on Internet service utilization. Consequently, we discover that willingness to pay (WTP) for public services over FTTH is almost identical between provincial and urban areas. Furthermore, territorial digital broadcasting over FTTH accounts for a large part of WTP in provincial areas, while tele-working and tele-education are also important as public services over FTTH in urban areas.     

The Diffusion of Mobile Internet in Japan

In Japan, the mobile phone has become an increasingly popular medium of accessing the Internet and e-mail, especially among those who may not have affordable access to a computer. The lower startup costs and the easier overall accessibility of mobile phones relative to personal computers suggest that the mobile phone may be a possible alternative for overcoming unequal access to information communication technology in Japan and elsewhere. Using microdata from 2001, we compare and contrast the determinants of mobile versus computer-based Internet in Japan. Our findings show that mobile Internet access, as compared to computer access, is determined less by demographics, socioeconomic status, and technological readiness, suggesting that barriers to Internet access are lower for mobile phones than is the case for computers.     

Household Technology Use: Integrating Household Life Cycle and the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households

Recently, the model of adoption of technology in households (MATH) was developed and tested in the context of household personal computer (PC) adoption. In this study, we apply MATH to predict personal computer (PC) use. We conducted a nationwide survey including 370 households that owned at least one PC. Results indicate that attitudinal beliefs are extremely important in determining use of a PC in the household. In contrast to previous work examining adopters, normative and control beliefs were not significant in predicting use. Furthermore, several determinants of adoption that were important at different stages of the household life cycle were found nonsignificant in predicting use for the same stages of the household life cycle. Overall, the results demonstrate that the belief structure for household PC use is different from that of household PC adoption. Further, the results provide additional evidence regarding the importance of including household life cycle in studies of household technology adoption and use.     

数字金融对农户采用绿色生产技术的影响

随着网络化、信息化、数字化的发展,以数字金融为代表的新兴金融服务模式在缓解农户借贷约束、信息约束以及风险分担等方面具有显著优势,对农户采用绿色生产技术具有重要作用。本文基于陕西省粮食种植户的微观调查数据,利用变异系数法测量农户绿色生产技术采用程度,运用内生转换回归模型,通过搭建反事实框架,实证分析了使用数字金融对农户绿色生产技术采用程度的影响和作用机制。研究发现：①使用数字金融能够显著提升农户的绿色生产技术采用程度,具体表现为在反事实假设下,使用数字金融的农户若未使用数字金融,其绿色生产技术采用程度将下降0.164;未使用数字金融的农户若使用数字金融,其绿色生产技术采用程度将提高0.222。②异质性分析表明,数字金融使用程度越深,其对农户采用绿色生产技术的提升效果越大;数字金融对文化程度较高、家庭收入较低、种植面积较大农户采用绿色生产技术的提升效果更大。③机制分析表明,数字金融能够通过提高借贷可得性、信息可得性和风险承担水平促进农户采用绿色生产技术。本文研究结论可在一定程度上为农业绿色生产技术推广提供新的视角和路径。     

Digital technology adoption and knowledge flows within firms: Can the Internet overcome geographic and technological distance?

Under what conditions does digital technology adoption increase cross location knowledge flows within firms? We investigate this question by studying the impact of adopting basic Internet access on cross-location knowledge flows within the same firm. We construct a large data set of Internet adoption and patent citations among dyadic pairs of firm-locations between 1992–1998. We find that when both locations in the pair adopt basic Internet there is an increase in the likelihood of a citation between the citing and (potential) cited location. In contrast, we find no significant effect of Internet adoption at only the citing location. We further study how this effect varies according to the proximity of the research activities between the source and recipient of knowledge and specialization of the research activities within the recipient. We find that the likelihood of a citation increases more after dyadic Internet adoption when the pair is working in similar research areas and when the research areas in the citing location are less specialized. These results, which are robust to a range of robustness analyses, suggest that digital technologies such as Internet connectivity are able to facilitate knowledge flows between locations only when they share a common knowledge base.     

The Digital Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon

The purpose of this article is to propose a fruitful analytical framework for data supposedly related to the concept of the so-called "digital divide." The extent and the nature of this divide depend on the kind of access defined. Considering the possession of hardware, growing divides among different categories of income, employment, education, age, and ethnicity can be proved to have existed in the 1980s and 1990s according to official American and Dutch statistics. If only by effects of saturation, these gaps will more or less close. However, it is shown that differential access of skills and usage is likely to increase. The growth of a usage gap is projected. Multivariate analyses of Dutch official statistics reveal the striking effect of age and gender as compared to education. The usage gap is related to the evolution of the information and network society. Finally, policy perspectives are discussed.     

浅论信息化环境下微观经济学课程的教学改革

随着信息技术时代的到来,微观经济学传统的教学模式和方法得到挑战。多媒体、计算机和互联网等现代教育技术在教学资源和教学模式等方面起到了积极推动作用,然而在实际的教学过程中如多媒体应用、教师信息技术掌握力度不够等方面存在着问题。在探讨信息环境下．微观经济学课程教学改革必要性的基础上,分析当今存在的问题,并为教师能更好地运用现代教育技术提高教学质量,深化教育改革,提出解决对策。     

The Digital Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon

The purpose of this article is to propose a fruitful analytical framework for data supposedly related to the concept of the so-called "digital divide." The extent and the nature of this divide depend on the kind of access defined. Considering the possession of hardware, growing divides among different categories of income, employment, education, age, and ethnicity can be proved to have existed in the 1980s and 1990s according to official American and Dutch statistics. If only by effects of saturation, these gaps will more or less close. However, it is shown that differential access of skills and usage is likely to increase. The growth of a usage gap is projected. Multivariate analyses of Dutch official statistics reveal the striking effect of age and gender as compared to education. The usage gap is related to the evolution of the information and network society. Finally, policy perspectives are discussed.     

Universal Service in a Ubiquitous Digital Network

Before there was the digital divide there was the analog divide– and universal service was the attempt to close that analogdivide. Universal service is becoming ever more complex in terms ofregulatory design as it becomes the digital divide. In order to evaluatethe promise of the next generation Internet with respect to the digitaldivide this work looks backwards as well as forwards in time. Byevaluating why previous universal service mechanisms failed andsucceeded this work identifies specific characteristics ofcommunications systems – in particular in billing and managinguncertainty – and argues that these characteristics underliesuccess or failure in terms of technological ubiquity. Developing a setof characteristics of services rather than a set of services is afundamental break with the tradition of universal service. In fact, theimplications of our proposal is that basic characteristics in theoffering of the service rather than the absolute price are critical toclose the digital divide: certainty of total charge, ability to avoiddeposits or disconnection via best effort service, and payer-basedcontrol of all charges. While all of these principles sound obvious infact none of these hold in the telephony network. Universal service hasevolved from common carriage (serve all with no discrimination) to aright to basic services (100% penetration). Universal service isnow discussed as the digital divide, as the access to information asopposed to services becomes increasingly critical. However, we arediscussing in this paper access to the bits and the network rather thanaccess to the information (or intellectual property) once connected. Theprovision of universal service is seen as a technical problem only in thatthe technology costs money – universal service debates have longbeen the domain of economists. Yet the design of protocols has been thedomain of engineers, the building of systems the corporate domain, andthe discussion of equity the interest of ethicists. The design ofprotocols can define the parameters of the corporate decision-makers,the variables of the economist, and the questions for the ethicist. Thedesign decisions made at the fundamental levels can make communicationsequity more or less likely. In this work I focus on the design ofprotocols for the next generation Internet, protocols which willfundamentally change the best-effort nature of Internet services.Building on the economic and ethnographic work of others I argue thatthe effects of protocols adoption on universal service can be predictedto some degree. By examination of past and current technologies Iexamine a set of technical mechanisms to determine how such mechanismsmight harm or enhance universal service. I define each mechanism (e.g.denial of entry) and offer observations about each particularmechanism's implicit pricing assumptions. I close with a discussion ofinterest to ethicists and regulators on evaluating communicationsprotocols with respect to universal access. Protocols for developingmultiple qualities of service for packet-switched networks have focusedon economic efficiency (e.g. Mackie-Mason, 1995; Choi, Stahl &Winston, 1997; Shapiro & Varian, 1998), billing to encouragewidespread adoption of network innovations (e.g. Xie & Sirbu, 1985)and billing in a manner consistent with the underlying network (e.g.Clark, 1996). Here we examine a set of protocols which include varyingquality of service mechanisms with respect to the compatibility of theprotocols with universal access.     

Theft in a wireless world

I explore philosophically the phenomenon of home wireless networks as used to share broadband Internet connections. Because such networks are frequently unsecured, third parties can use them to access the Internet. Here I consider carefully whether this kind of behaviour should be properly called theft. I begin with a brief non-technical introduction to 802.11 wireless networks. Subsequently, I present a four part argument – appealing to the unsecured nature of the networks discussed, entrenched software and hardware behaviours, trespass law, and the openness of ‹public park’ spectrum – suggesting that this kind of behaviour is permissible and should not be construed as theft. Substantively, I conclude that, despite the quite compelling considerations that these arguments bring to bear, this behaviour is theft. Additionally, I draw attention to significant flaws in the design and implementation of wireless technology (specifically in the out-of-the-box configuration for wireless access points and in the wireless connectivity of early versions of Windows XP) that facilitate the intentional and unintentional theft of Internet bandwidth. I suggest some simple mechanisms that could be incorporated into the technology which would serve to remove the ethical ambiguity in its usage by third parties, including adding the ability for a network owner to explicitly mark her network as not for public use,␣and changes to default hardware and software behaviours. I conclude by encouraging increased use of value-sensitive design practices in the development of future wireless technologies.     

Universal Service in a Ubiquitous Digital Network

Before there was the digital divide there was the analog divide– and universal service was the attempt to close that analogdivide. Universal service is becoming ever more complex in terms ofregulatory design as it becomes the digital divide. In order to evaluatethe promise of the next generation Internet with respect to the digitaldivide this work looks backwards as well as forwards in time. Byevaluating why previous universal service mechanisms failed andsucceeded this work identifies specific characteristics ofcommunications systems – in particular in billing and managinguncertainty – and argues that these characteristics underliesuccess or failure in terms of technological ubiquity. Developing a setof characteristics of services rather than a set of services is afundamental break with the tradition of universal service. In fact, theimplications of our proposal is that basic characteristics in theoffering of the service rather than the absolute price are critical toclose the digital divide: certainty of total charge, ability to avoiddeposits or disconnection via best effort service, and payer-basedcontrol of all charges. While all of these principles sound obvious infact none of these hold in the telephony network. Universal service hasevolved from common carriage (serve all with no discrimination) to aright to basic services (100% penetration). Universal service isnow discussed as the digital divide, as the access to information asopposed to services becomes increasingly critical. However, we arediscussing in this paper access to the bits and the network rather thanaccess to the information (or intellectual property) once connected. Theprovision of universal service is seen as a technical problem only in thatthe technology costs money – universal service debates have longbeen the domain of economists. Yet the design of protocols has been thedomain of engineers, the building of systems the corporate domain, andthe discussion of equity the interest of ethicists. The design ofprotocols can define the parameters of the corporate decision-makers,the variables of the economist, and the questions for the ethicist. Thedesign decisions made at the fundamental levels can make communicationsequity more or less likely. In this work I focus on the design ofprotocols for the next generation Internet, protocols which willfundamentally change the best-effort nature of Internet services.Building on the economic and ethnographic work of others I argue thatthe effects of protocols adoption on universal service can be predictedto some degree. By examination of past and current technologies Iexamine a set of technical mechanisms to determine how such mechanismsmight harm or enhance universal service. I define each mechanism (e.g.denial of entry) and offer observations about each particularmechanism's implicit pricing assumptions. I close with a discussion ofinterest to ethicists and regulators on evaluating communicationsprotocols with respect to universal access. Protocols for developingmultiple qualities of service for packet-switched networks have focusedon economic efficiency (e.g. Mackie-Mason, 1995; Choi, Stahl &Winston, 1997; Shapiro & Varian, 1998), billing to encouragewidespread adoption of network innovations (e.g. Xie & Sirbu, 1985)and billing in a manner consistent with the underlying network (e.g.Clark, 1996). Here we examine a set of protocols which include varyingquality of service mechanisms with respect to the compatibility of theprotocols with universal access.