The 2002 report:

On Feb. 5th, 2002 the NTIA and the Economics and Statistics Administration released the latest report, A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use Of The Internet based on the September 2001 U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey of approximately 57,000 households and more than 137,000 individuals, the report credibly claims to be among the most broad-based and reliable datasets that have been gathered on Internet, broadband, and computer connectivity. Like it's immediate predecessor, the 2002 report continues to provide highly detailed data on individual technology penetration, including an expansion of our data on usage location be it home, school, from libraries, etc. In keeping with the previous findings, penetration of computers Internet capability continues to expand across every measurable population, thus firmly establishing upward trends. As of September 2001, 65.6 percent of the U.S. population were computer users and 53.9 percent of the population used the Internet. Since 1997 computer use has grown at a rate of 5.3 percent on an annualized basis. Internet use has grown at a rate of 20 percent a year since 1998. Amid the general tone of optimism, there are certain reservations from the reports authors, notably with persons in groups including those with disabilities those living in low-income households or those having little education as these are pointed out to be trailing the general population. Beyond these cautions, however, we see the continuing growth in disparity between top and bottom ranked categories in certain groups that have been a source of concern in the past, suggesting that the optimistic tone of the report may be well overstated.

Each preceding report has framed the Digital Divide in relative terms, and the critical relationship examined has always been that between the top and bottom ranked categories in observed groups. The 2000 report had been able to demonstrate in certain cases that certain groups were lagging behind national averages OR top-ranked groups. Certain of these groups showed minimal improvement and some showed increasing percentage point lags behind top ranked categories in their groups. In the charts below we finally abandon our familiar format of examining data which has been cross-tabulated according to geographic location category. In truth, relieving ourselves of this burden allows us to gain clearer views on trends of usage. We had only maintained this analysis to exploit data which was consistent throughout previous reports because it allowed us the greatest historical perspective available. We are now able to evaluate central "Digital Divide" trends in terms of percentage point trails between top and bottom ranked categories of individuals. In doing so, we focus more closely on an indicator that has been central to the Digital Divide thesis to date: the relative, not the absolute, disparities that exist, between top and bottom ranked groups.

I will additionally make the leap of discussing Internet access instead of discussing computers for the first time. In narrow terms it is entirely reasonable to assume that anyone accessing the Internet is accessing it via a computer, palm device or web-TV device, all of which are included in these statistics, and computers or like-devices would logically-if implicitly-represented by the discussion. I consider this point to be trivial when compared to our more global need to morph our definitions and requirements to match growing awareness of what the Digital Divide is, and what Digital Inclusion might mean.

The 1995's focus on modem ownership as a primary indicator seems comical in retrospect, given it's inherent inefficiency as an indicator of online access, and computer use might be said to have a similar relationship to information inclusion in digital terms. With the hindsight available to us today, we can understand an unconnected computer to effectively be a combination of household and office appliances: typewriter, calculator, filing cabinet, CD player. Internet access more fully determines the level of information available to the individual, and it is information which has been the primary interest of NTIA reports since they focused primarily telephone service. Again, in retrospect, it seems serendipitous that the medium that would dump "gigaquads" of data on the average consumer turns out to have been conveniently preceded by the penetration of the machine that could make it manageable.

The tables below contain data from 20022-2: Internet Use From Any Location by Individuals Age 3 and Older, October 1997, December 1998, August 2000, and September 2001. The right-hand four columns demonstrate the increasing percentage point in lag between top and bottom ranked groups in each population for each respective year. Note that the lead, or top-ranked category in the groups below sometimes changes or switches off to another category. It may be worth pointing out that percentage point trails which I show later are my own calculations, not those of the report.

Ethnicity

Education

In this view we see that those without a high school diploma not only show in increasing lag, but their overall rate of penetration is very low.

Income

Increasing percentage point trails manifest for individuals with household incomes under $34,999!

Geographic category

The consistent penetration of rural use has surprised many who are aware of challenges to service providers who do business in rural environments. Central cities continue to lag further behind other groups.

Household type

Radical changes and percentage point trails for all groups except female householders indicate challenges in understanding variables effecting this dynamic.Out of deference to earlier discussions, computer use rates for 2001 are highest for Asian American /Pacific Islanders (71.2 percent) and Whites (70.0 percent) fall to 55.7 for blacks and 48.8 percent for Hispanics. For the same year, Internet use among Whites and Asian American/Pacific Islanders was at 60 percent. For Blacks it was 39.8 percent and 31.6 for Hispanics. They do in fact demonstrate increasing divergence between top and bottom ranked groups as well as growth in percentage point trail. I will spare you the charts.

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