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I agree. My dad equated the Blue E with the Internet, click on it and you can get the football scores. I moved him over to Firefox - the alpha geeks were saying its much better for Windows users to be using this, I got some of the arguments, seemed to work, so fine: less patching up for me to do on my dad's machine. My dad - well he just took my word. He's heard of viruses and security problems, doesn't really understand them. Most users don't - see the latest Pew report on users understanding of technical terms: he's just like me and the mechanic on my car:

Mechanic: you should change from a wiggley-diddly carb thingy to a blargy -wargy one, it works better and has less problems

Me: ok.

Same difference for most end users I think.

In the Pew article there is a link to /pdfs/Search Module of MayJune04 Tracking Topline.pdf but it doesn't exist. The closest I could find was PIP_Data_Memo_Searchengines.pdf, which has some questions, but nothing about sponsored links.

I think this really underscores the issue and shows how the RIAA is not representative of the musicians thoughts and concerns.

Most musicians, especially struggling musicians, enjoy using the Internet and File Sharing programs to share their music (See pdf) . However, most feel that their work should be protected and they should get some sort of compensation from it (a perfectly justifable argument. Can't make much music if you're starving) (See pdf).

How are the above to concerns and attitudes towards file sharing in line with the RIAA's past, recent and future actions.

Also, this was an anonymous survey so it'd be interesting to really see who fell where (pop stars vs local bands).

I think this really underscores the issue and shows how the RIAA is not representative of the musicians thoughts and concerns.

Most musicians, especially struggling musicians, enjoy using the Internet and File Sharing programs to share their music (See pdf) . However, most feel that their work should be protected and they should get some sort of compensation from it (a perfectly justifable argument. Can't make much music if you're starving) (See pdf).

How are the above to concerns and attitudes towards file sharing in line with the RIAA's past, recent and future actions.

Also, this was an anonymous survey so it'd be interesting to really see who fell where (pop stars vs local bands).

Neener neener neener, but if you really want to know, those figures came from a Google for "broadband penetration mainland China" and "broadband penetration USA"

Here's let's try it again.

Here we go, similar numbers from several different sources: start with China

"The number of broadband users grew to 31 million by the end of June, a 79 percent increase in subscribers from the start of this year." XDSL.com

Okay, now let's try it with USA®

The first link I get is just percentages.
Second link says:

The data shows that 24.6 million U.S. households now subscribe to high-speed Internet. Among the 20 top high-speed Internet providers in the United States, which represent 98 percent of the market, 7.4 million high-speed subscribers were added in 2003.

TRIPInfo.com

Wow, that's much lower than what I posted. It can't be that bad, can it? Let's keep digging.

Hmm, about five links down I get a nice highball figure almost twice that at 48 million. Gee, that was about the figure I posted, wasn't it?

But whatever you do, don't look at this one, these guys say that a third world country is at eighty percent of US penetration. What a shameful figure.

It's a point seconded by Sheri Graner Ray, a senior game designer for Sony Online Entertainment. The game industry, by virtue of its overwhelmingly male employee-base, is missing a big market, she said.

Surprisingly, slightly more women than men reported playing computer and online games (approximately 60% women compared to 40% men) while about the same number of men and women reported playing video games.

This part, my dear AC (.pdf file) ...and I was being very charitable about it by fudging down from a 30% US total to only 20% broadband world-wide, since very few places outside of Western Europe, Select parts of Asia, and North America can even afford the infrastructure, let alone have an actual customer base for it.

"every city has an internet cafe with a burner at least... i would probably guess 95% of internet users have access to broadband IN SOME WAY. work, school, cafe..."

Perhaps in Southern California or wherever you're fortunate enough to live that may be true, but even within the US, I defy you to point out where "95%" of Montana's population has access to broadband (or Alaska, or Utah, or Mississippi, or North Dakota, or...?)

HTH, dear. And get out more often...

#2) The data was collected using random-digit dialing. Obviously, the people who don't have phones are more likely to not have internet access too. I wouldn't discount this factor.

True. However, random-digit telephone surveys are one of the most widely-used and accurate survey / sampling methodologies available. The proportion of american households with telephones is around 95%. Not perfect, but it is known, and thus is accounted for. There are huge bodies of statistical theory built up around correcting for the deficiencies and biases that are implicit in this sort of survey. For example, here's a detailed description of the methodology used for the Pew Internet & American Life survey, which was also a random-digit dial survey. That doesn't ensure that N/N used similar methodological rigor, but just provides an example that people are aware of these problems, and some of them try to correct for them.

Finally: yes, according to these stats, women ages 35 - 54 have the highest rate of penetration (spare me any forthcoming penis jokes, thank you) at 81.7%. But the penetration rate for men of the same age group is only SLIGHTLY less -- 80.2%. I can't find the margin of error, but unless N/N is insanely rigorous and sampled 5,000+ people, the difference between men and women is probably within the margin of error (generally 2 - 4%).

I should point out the article I reference with that 7%... Written by Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at Pew Internet & American Life project. "SPAM: How it is Hurting Email and Degrading Life on the Internet". Available here.
Another point is that the 7% statistic may be skewed, because some of the people surveyed didn't consider all mail to be SPAM (ie, they requested the special offers / catalogs / etc by email)

The headline is misleading. From the report in html version

17% have posted written material on Web sites.

That wasn't the impression I got from reading the part of the article that was a link. Creative journalism indeed.

"I don't know if I'd say it works."

Thanks for your uneducated opinion but I'll take the PEW Research Center's opinion over yours every day of the week.

The Pew Internet Life Project issued a similar report recently, suggesting that Internet chat usage had shown only a modest increase.

We recently published our years end list of the top ten chat topics for 2003, and have seen a very good growth both in Chatmag and Internet chat and discussion sites in general. Two years ago, our estimate of functioning chat rooms were at about 750,000. End of 2003 estimates are at about 1,325,000. We now include 'blogs and discussion groups such as Yahoo! Groups and MSN Groups in our listings, to reflect the changes in social interaction.

Online game playing, while not in itself "chat" offers players the opportunity to talk to each other. According to statistics from 2002, an estimated 50 million people around the world were playing online games that year, and the number is expected to grow to 114 million by the year 2006. Online game playing is the Internet equivalent of "poker night" or board gaming with friends.

According to Alexa, the two year ranking for Slashdot rose from a low of about 1750 to todays rank of 881. In that same time, Chatmag's rank was at about 230,000 two years ago, with todays ranking of 43,656. Other social networking and related sites have shown a similar increase in users, suggesting that the reports do not delve into all aspects of social interaction.

When Pew and The World Internet Project look at usage, they do not consider sites such as Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Ryze, or Ecademy as "chat" sites, although the primary function of such sites are to promote dialog.

Social interaction is evolving from the traditional IRC chat room toward more focused integrated sites, such as interactive games, 'blogs and Slashdot-type sites.

The Pew Internet Life Project issued a similar report recently, suggesting that Internet chat usage had shown only a modest increase.

We recently published our years end list of top ten chat topics for 2003, and have seen a very good growth both in Chatmag and Internet chat and discussion sites in general. Two years ago, our estimate of functioning chat rooms were at about 750,000. End of 2003 estimates are at about 1,325,000. Online game playing, while not in itself "chat" offers players the opportunity to talk to each other. According to statistics from 2002, an estimated 50 million people around the world were playing online games that year, and the number is expected to grow to 114 million by the year 2006.

According to Alexa, the two year ranking for Slashdot rose from a low of about 1750 to todays rank of 881. In that same time, Chatmag's rank was at about 230,000 two years ago, with todays ranking of 43,656. Other social networking sites have shown a similar increase in users.

When Pew and The World Internet Project look at usage, they do not consider sites such as Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Ryze, or Ecademy as "chat" sites, although the primary function of such sites are to promote dialog.

Social interaction is evolving from the traditional IRC chat room toward more focused integrated sites, such as Slashdot.

I want to know where the hell they get their data from... I'm not really going to put much faith in their stats though, as these are the same people who claim that only 13% of people who use the internet have been to an "adult website".

PDF of the report with much easy to read (but no more informative) graphs and chars.

the full report can be found here.

Most people I know who have a choice between DSL and cable modem have gone with cable (myself included). This mostly comes down to the speed difference (although in my case it also had to do with a maddening disconnect problem that Qwest DSL could not seem to solve for me).

If DSL could truly start offering service that is MUCH faster than cable, they might be able to reverse the trend towards cable (67% for cable vs. 28% for DSL according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study.)

i am personally too lazy to figure out where i have to go, and generally don't like standing in long lines to fill out archaic forms.

This is precisely one of the problems with online voting. If you're not willing to exert the effort to go to a polling place, you shouldn't be voting anyway.

Another problem with online voting is the digital divide. A new study found that 42% of Americans aren't online. That's doesn't necessarily correspond to 42% of registered voters, but a number that large shows that online voting won't benefit a significant number of people.

Probably the single best way to improve voter participation is to move elections to Sunday. Almost everyone in the country either has Sunday off or they don't have to work normal polling hours on Sunday (7 AM to 7 PM). Many countries around the world have elections on Sundays, I can't believe we still use Tuesdays.

Several people I work with receive way too much spam (and the very offensive kind). For instance, one lady received over 100 spam messages in a day just after ordering NASCAR tickets online. BTW, here is link to the PEW Study advisory board - Full of high ranking execs from Pro-Spam companies.

You can find it here. One of the things mentioned is how America becomes devided about the measures taken after 9/11, and about their privacy.

If you believe the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports, roughly 40-58M people in the United States have ever purchased something online.

As for Amazon, hrm. In the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2001, they had 1.1B in revenue (totall, not just books). Not that long ago, the UK site alone claimed 5M customers -- apparently one-sixth of all UK e-commerce in 2/02. From a 2001 Form 10-K, filed 24-Jan-02, the "U.S. Books, Music and DVD/video segment" had net sales of $1.69B in 2001.

Hm. I can't find a breakdown that only includes books sold over Amazon.com (those figures include income from partnerships, such as running www.borders.com, in addition to music and video), but it's probably safe to say that it's probably quite huge. They're big enough that if there ARE a decent number of used books(*) for sale on AMZN, it might have a substantial impact.

(*) But there might not be. These used books are mostly person-to-person sales, not Amazon-to-person sales, and thus will probably be sold in far lower quantities than what Amazon normally sells(**). I didn't see a revenue breakdown for new/used, either.

(**) Except for drivel that customers decide to immediately resell, in droves, of course. But then, it's probably easier to sell it to a colleague or nearby bookstore, or donate to a local library, unless it's something obscure.

For some reason I was drawn to this. The report has a section on "What people find annoying." Without much suprise, many are stating that Spam is becoming highly problematic. The most annoying of the spam being considered sales solititation. They also have this to say about 'adult' spamming:

We also probed into a particular type of spam that is often cited as an annoyance to Internet users-messages with adult content or from adult Web sites. More than half-56%-of U.S. email users have at one time or another received an email from an adult Web site or that contained adult content. Twenty percent report that this occurs often, with Internet veterans twice as likely as novices to receive such messages (24% for veterans versus 12% for novices). The greater incidence for veterans is likely to be nothing more than a reflection of the number of years they have been online. Their more extensive surfing habits increases the chances that traces of information identifying their email addresses have been picked up by these sites.

One has to wonder if the veteran Internet users are just more likely to look for porn. After all, everyone I met during High School who went on the Internet always followed it up by "You can get free pictures of naked women there!" Well, not everyone, but all of the non-computer geeks at least. Food for thought.

The Section.

If you want to see some data on who was/is doing music downloads, see

The Music Downloading Deluge, a report from the Pew Internet Project

One key statistic from the summary, 29% of adult Internet users told Pew that they had downloaded music on the Internet. And the trends were up at the time the study was completed.

Also, check this report by the Pew Center - they did some research on who uses Napster (age, gender) and why (pirating, sampling).

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