Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Users' Web

If anyone's still in doubt that the Web is increasingly what its users are making it, the latest Pew Internet & American Life study might add some clarity. "User-Generated Content and Interactivity at the Cutting Edge" is one of the headlines, and another is "Home broadband adoption is going mainstream and that means user-generated content is coming from all kinds of internet users." Thirty-five percent of all Net users have posted content to the internet," the study found. For most of these (26%), it's something they've created – artwork, photos, stories, or videos; next it's their own Web page (14%); then a blog or Web page for friends, groups belonged to, or work (13%); finally, it's one's own online journal or blog (8%). In all, about 31 million people have posted content to the Internet, and this "user-generated" Web is driven by "young home high-speed Internet users" – people under 30. This highly creative, interactive Web 2.0 is clearly thriving and growing.

1 comment:

  1. A very interesting report. It is interesting that availability of broadband seems to be the most important determining factor in who has it, not the cost or the income level of the people. The rural areas have the lowest percent of broadband (I'd think because it's simply not available in remote areas). In urban areas, even income level appears to have little effect on who has broadband. And ethnic hispanic and black people have a higher level of posting content on the internet than white people, even though the average income of white people is higher.

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