F. Thomas, FTR Rosny-sous-Bois, FranceN. Vittadini, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, ItalyP. Gómez-Fernández, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

The Good, the Bad and the ChallengingCOST 298 Conference13 to 15 May 2009 Copenhagen

Diffusion and socio/cultural relevance of Broadband technology depends not only on access, but also on services uptake and use.

Services uptake is affected by differences in groups of people and levels of acceptance and use of a new technology.

Besides basic socio-economic and socio-demographic influences services uptake (use and incorporation in everyday life) is affected by cultural variables and needs a cultural approach integrating the appropriation of technologies into domestic cultures and their incorporation in accordance with social values and behaviour.

“It's not about the technology or the artefact, but about the culture in which those technologies and artefacts are embedded" (Boyd, 2007 )

Diffusion and socio/cultural relevance of Broadband technology depends not only on access, but also on services uptake and use.

Services uptake is affected by differences in groups of people and levels of acceptance and use of a new technology.

Besides basic socio-economic and socio-demographic influences services uptake (use and incorporation in everyday life) is affected by cultural variables and needs a cultural approach integrating the appropriation of technologies into domestic cultures and their incorporation in accordance with social values and behaviour.

An operational definition of culture commonly shared symbols; values; beliefs; attitudes and their translation into everyday social perceptions

A set of influences already identified by previous studies:

Consumers’ perception of broadband technology HOFSTEDE: Power Distance; HOFSTEDE: Collectivism versus Individualism; HOFSTEDE: Uncertainty Avoidance; HOFSTEDE: Short-term vs long-term orientation; INGLEHART: Postmaterialism; Social capital ; Interpersonal trust; Trust on the net.

Among broadband services significant to evidence new user’s behaviour and cultural differences are web 2.0 services.

This kind of services : Can be assumed as indicators of an Information Society as

they require more skills on the user’s part (markers of increasing digital literacy).

For the level of creative participation of the citizens they can be a promise of an expanding field of creative opportunity.

Are adopted according to the “moral economy of the households”.

Creative internet

Social Computing

Circular entertainment

all creative uses of the net ranging from relatively straightforward user-generated content such as sharing photographs, to the distribution of more complex amateur-produced material

all social uses of the net including collaboration, sharing, communication such as blogging, podcasting, uses of Wiki applications, social networking, multimedia sharing, social tagging and social gaming

all applications that permits users to consume entertainment products through different devices, through peer to peer sharing or personal downloading and streaming

The consequence : incoherent country & item coverage, web2.0 undercovered & no household-level data

Sources Sampling Plus Cons Web2.0

European Social Survey ++ social capital few ICT —social values

Eurobarometer + recent EU citizens only +Flash Eurobarometer repetitive question development

trend questions pop. Aged 15 to 74 yrs.ICT embargo questions

Eurostat ICT household survey + recent aggregate data only +ICT covered

ITU + aggregate data only +

Hofstede value questions no clear theoretical basis —few countries

IBM managers

The comparative analysis of web2.0 services in Europe & its data sources

Social values and attitudes Postmaterialism Free opinion as a global value Tolerance as a global value Non-users perceived as old fashioned Interpersonal trust

Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Local attachment

Cultural activities and consumption Visual and manual artistic activities Traditional artistic activities Frequency of Cultural consumption Width of Cultural consumption

Social behaviour

• % Volunteering• Relative importance of family in

comparison to friends

• Friends from abroad, in Europe• Friends from outside Europe

Socio-demographic influences

• % Internet users in 2000• Price of Internet• Length of residence• Hrs. worked per week• Household size

Circular entertainment, the most similar to traditional media consumption, is widely adopted in all of the countries studied.

Participation through content production, i.e. creative internet, is more diffused in culturally active countries.

Participation through social networks, i.e. social computing, is more diffused in non-social active countries.

Conclusions

Countries can be profiled through 3 dimensions Social capital and cultural activities (53% of

variance) Technology and sociability (13% of variance) Egalitarian values and active culture (8% of

variance)• No longer considered here for clarity of the presentation• HOFSTEDE variables form part of this weak influence

Countries can be profiled by (1)

Participation and cultural activities+ cultural activities & consumption

+ social values: postmaterialism

+ social bridging capital: volunteering, friends abroad, friends more important than family, interpersonal trust

- size of household, length of residence

Countries can be profiled by (2)

Technology and sociability- price of the Internet+ long-term Internet penetration of country

- length of residence+ friends from outside Europe

- non-users perceived as old-fashioned

+/- signs show direction of major influences (above |.8|), smaller influences not shown

The profiles of the country types

+ + - -

Postmaterialism + + + - - -Volunteering + + + - -Interpersonal trust + + - - -Friends abroad + + - - -

- - - + + + +

Length of residence - - + + +Size of household +

Technology maturity* + + - - -

* Internet price in 2007 & Internet diffusion in 2000

Top cultural & social actives

Cultural & social

actives

Social actives & cultural consumers

Analogue cultural

consumers

Analogue cultural actives

Cultural consumption & activities

Family more valued than friends

-2 -1,5 -1 -0,5 0 0,5 1 1,5-3

-2,5

-2

-1,5

-1

-0,5

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

NLUK

IEFI

SE

AT

DEDK

IT

ES

PT

BE

HU

CZ

FRGR

PL

Cultural & social activesSocial actives & cultural consumersAnalog cultural activesAnalog cultural consumersTop Cultural & social actives

Participation & culture

Tech

nolo

gy &

soc

iabi

lity

There is a general European model, a common minimum level of web2.0 usages, in all of the 17 European countries studied.

Web2.0 services are widely used in low-diffusion countries because of their majority of young users.

Transferring content to/from devices is highest in analogue cultural consumer countries. Publication of visual content is most active in transformation countries.

In % of resp.

46 45 59 62 49

36 36 37 36 33

40 36 49 49 42

42 38 41 49 46

Source: Flash Eurobarometer 241, 2008

top cultural and social

active

cultural and social

actives,

analogue cultural actives

analogue cultural

consumer

social actives and

cultural consumers

Play games, downloading music, etc.Maintain profile on social networking sitesUpload photos, videos to public websiteTransfer content from Internet to private devices

Starting from cultural influences we can describe three models of adoption:

Flat model of the complete offer of web 2.0 services aimed to sustain both social and cultural activities already characterizing the countries. This model can be seen both in “top cultural and social performers” and in “cultural and social performers” which shows a homogeneous adoption pattern including both creative Internet and social computing activities.

Cultural goods oriented model defined by a clear privilege for circular entertainment practices aimed to increasing through web 2.0 services the number and the differentiation of cultural products that users can consume and the way they consume then (through mobile devices for example) while social activities seems to be left to real life. This model can be seen both in “social active and cultural consumers” and in “analogue cultural consumers”.

Cultural performance oriented model defined by a centrality of cultural activity (creative internet for example) through web 2.0 services and to achieve a more active social life for “analogue cultural active” countries.

Circular entertainment, the most similar to traditional media consumption, is widely adopted in all of the countries studied.

Participation through content production, i.e. creative internet, is more diffused in culturally active countries.

Participation through social networks, i.e. social computing, is more diffused in non-social active countries.

Conclusions

United in diversity ?

• There are common traits in web2.0 usage in all of the 17 countries studied.

• At the same time there are several clearly distinguishable country types that influence the path to a broadband society.

How to contact the authors by email:

frank.thomasftr@free.fr nicoletta.vittadini@unicatt.it gomezfer@ccinf.ucm.es

Download of the full text :

http://miha2.ef.uni-lj.si/cost298/gbc2009-proceedings/papers/P123.pdf