The Internet and Society:Oxford’s New Research Initiative
William DuttonDirector
Oxford Internet Institutewww.oii.ox.ac.uk
Sixth Annual Oxford University Society LectureAssembly Room, Oxford Town Hall, 3 June 2003
Society and the Internet
1. A New Perspective – e-Access
2. A New Institute – the OII
Steve Russell
Internet and Web Diffusion
• 200 million connected PCs
• 30 million sites on the WWW
• Over 155 million users in the USA (54%)
• Over 59 million users in China (5%)
• Over 24 million users in the UK (41%)
Total Users
0 50000 100000 150000 200000
United States
China
Japan
Germany
Korea, Rep.
United Kingdom
France
Italy
India
Brazil
Total Users
Total Number of Internet Users (ITU 2002)
% Population
0 20 40 60 80
Sweden
Korea, Rep.
Singapore
United States
Japan
Hong Kong, China
Germany
Estonia
United Kingdom
Taiwan
France
Italy
Macao
Chile
Spain
Hungary
Brazil
China
% Population
Internet Users (% Population) ITU, 2002
The Impact of the Internet?
• Social isolation or virtual community?• e-Democracy or Orwellian society?• Enabling or destroying quality education?• Wealth of information or unwanted spam?
Dominant Perspectives
• Utopian-dystopian-irrelevant• Deterministic – technically rational• Focused on “information”• Long-range mega-shifts – information society• Sector specific – democracy, community, … • Technology specific
Reconfiguring Access
Almond Strowger’s
Switch
Reconfiguring Access
• The answering machine
• Wireless – the pager and mobile phone
• V-chip
• The Internet’s Digital Divides
• Virtual University
• The Web and Online News
Access
Shapes
Communicative Power
The Centrality of Access
e-Enabled Access to/from:
• Information: what you read, hear, see; what you know
• People: who you know; with whom you communicate – who is in? who is out?
• Services: what you consume; who pays what to whom
• Technologies: access to other information and communication technologies (ICTs)
Issues of Communicative Power
• Community, isolation, or reinforcement?• Empowering citizens, states, or
reinforcement?• Spam – users losing control of access?• The Digital Divide – reinforcing
economic divides• Copyright – restricting access
Strategies Limited/Shaped by:
• Economic resources and constraints
• ICT paradigms and practices
• Conceptions and responses of users
• Geography of space and place
• Institutional arrangements and public policy
• Strategies of others: ecology of games
• Access versus Information
• Technologies matter – (re)shaping access
• Not deterministic – open society
• Social impacts the outcome of an unfolding ecology of choices by multiple actors
The e-Access Perspective
Thinking About Access
• Reject technological determinism
• Accept the need for empirical research on the actual impacts of the Internet in particular social and institutional settings.
Oxford Internet Institute
• Andrew Graham, Balliol College
• Dame Stephanie Shirley The Shirley Foundation
• HEFCE
Oxford Internet Institute
• Established in 2001
• Located in 1 St Giles, Balliol College
• Unit within Social Sciences Division
• Director in place in July 2002
• Building works completed THIS WEEK
Mission
Early Research
1. Governance
2. Learning and Education
3. Science and Networks
4. E-Society: Household-Community-Polity
5. Cross-Cutting Issues
Governance
• Cisco Professor of e-Democracy
• Debate on e-voting
Stephen Coleman
Learning and Education
• Broadband in Oxfordshire Schools
• ICTs and Higher Education:
the Oxford Tutorial
Dutton, W. and Loader, B. Digital Academe (Routledge 2002)
Science and Networks
• Institutional Infrastructures of e-Science
• Ethics of Internet Research
Professor Paul David
e-Society
• Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS)
• World Internet Project (WIP)
OxIS will be directed by Professor Richard Rose, who is newly appointed as Senior Fellow in Governance at the OII.
• Integrative Concepts and Themes: Access, Internet Capital
• Issues for Policy and Practice: Intellectual Property Rights and Standards
• Social Implications: Digital Divides, Trust, Communicative Power
Cross-cutting Dimensions
Collaboration
• Multi-Disciplinary
• Business, Industry and Government
• Example: Broadband Divides Forum
Teaching
• Summer Doctoral Programme
• Magnet for Oxford Students:
Internet Resource Centre
• Innovative Master’s Paper(s)
Dr Victoria Nash
Net-Working
• Internet as a Strategic Resource
• Design of 1 St Giles
• Conduct of Research
• Collaboration – worldwide
• Teaching: First Webcast of a debate at the Oxford Union – ‘e-Voting’
Contact the OII:Web: www.oii.ox.ac.ukE-mail: [email protected]
Oxford Internet InstituteOxford University1 St GilesOxford OX1 3JS
Phone: +44 (0)1865 287 210
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