Regarding international comparative data: While the data are changing, and some good online resources have already been recommended, let me also suggest: Carleen F. Maitland and Johannes M. Bauer, "National Level Culture and Global diffusion: the Case of the Internet," in Charles Ess (Ed.), _Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village_, pp. 87-120. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001. Building on previous efforts, Maitland and Bauer develop a framework for quantitative approaches to technology diffusion that will be of value in its own right as well as it includes numerous sources for the sorts of data you're looking for, including data for the OECD. In addition (quoting from my introduction): Previous research has tended to focus on matters of economy and infrastructure, with relatively little work in the area of culture - in part, because earlier work has shown that economic factors are the stronger predictors of technology adoption. In order to test these findings and their own enhancements of earlier diffusion theory, Maitland and Bauer build especially on the work of Hofstede and Herbig to include three cultural factors in their study: uncertainty avoidance, gender equality, and English language ability. Their extensive statistical study draws on a considerable range of data sources, as available for 185 countries during the time period between 1991 and 1997. In examining Internet growth between countries, they find that cultural variables are less significant in explaining adoption than economic or infrastructure variables: of these, teledensity, International Call Cost, and School Enrollment emerge as the strongest predictors - the last finding supporting the importance of education in development. For that, the cultural factor of English language ability also plays a significant role. In analyzing growth within countries, their data likewise uncovers a comparatively stronger role for economic factors - in this case, the number of PC¹s per capita. But cultural factors - namely, uncertainty avoidance and gender empowerment - also play a significant role. Beyond Maitland and Bauer, you may want to look at some of the reports on specific cultural domains - Germany/Austria/Switzerland (Hrachovec), Switzerland (Rey), Kuwait (Wheeler), Korea (Yoon, Fouser), India (Kenniston), and Thailand (Hongladarom) as these include sources for country-specific data. Good luck and good hunting - Charles Ess Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/Departments/phil-relg/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC 2002: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/ "...to be non-violent, we must not wish for anything on this earth which the meanest and lowest of human beings cannot have." -- Gandhi
From: air-l-request@aoir.org Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 11:31:01 -0400 (EDT) To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #60 - 13 msgs
Message: 3 Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 13:17:23 -0400 From: Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> To: aoir list <air-l@aoir.org> Cc: wenhong chen <wenchen@chass.utoronto.ca>, Jeff Boase <jeff.boase@utoronto.ca> Subject: [Air-l] international data Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org
Wenhong Chen, Jeff Boase and I are looking for Reliable comparative data on computer and internet use rates across countries -- as many countries as possible, but OECD + a few other biggies at least.