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: director@oii.ox.ac.uk

Oxford Internet InstituteOxford University1 St GilesOxford OX1 3JS

Phone: +44 (0)1865 287 210