Hello John (and Air-L), Thanks for sharing your research. Like some others on the list, I'm not surprised by your results at all. I've done a lot of work with colleagues looking at Statistics Canada Internet Use Survey data, trying to understand how people who say yes, they use the internet, actually spend their time online. The most recent data are from 2007, and one of the key findings is that combining the frequency of online access (e.g. daily, weekly etc.) with hours online reveals that about 45% of the (online) population are online daily AND for more than 5 hours a week (high intensity users). Given that about 70% of the total adult (>17) population were online at the time of this survey, just over 30% of adult Canadians were using the internet daily and for more than 5 hours a week as of late 2007. So arguably, intensity of use is low. Along the same lines, the only things that 50% or more of the total Canadian adult population (not just internet users) were doing online in 2007 were general web browsing and email. As has been noted here, some people in the tech sector and some internet researchers tend to discount these data, maybe not being able to imagine that many people really do spend less than 5 hours online per week. It's important to distinguish between internet adoption and use, and much more work is needed to understand what use really means. Hours online isn't a particularly good measure of use (especially as people adopt mobile phones with ubiquitous access), but it's been a starting point for many studies. The qualitative work John is doing provides good insights into real usage behaviours, and work to find good measures of engagement based on quantitative data continues. If you're interested in this topic, my work in this area is available at http://www.broadbandresearch.ca/ourresearch/papers.html (scroll down for conference papers based on Statistics Canada data). Also look for the papers from the "Beyond Broadband Access: Data-Based Information Policy For a New Administration Workshop" to be held in Washington, DC, this September. For some recent industry data, see 2008/2009 Accenture US Consumer Technology Research Findings http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/040BE0BE-1FE5-45DD-9791-AC1D40A45A2C/0... Then of course there is another entire discussion about the disconnect between discourses about the need for, and use of next generation broadband networks, and the data about what the average user actually does online. Cheers, Catherine Middleton Ted Rogers School of Management Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada catherine.middleton@ryerson.ca