The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world.

The basis of the reports are nationwide random digit dial telephone surveys as well as online surveys. This data collection is supplemented with research from government agencies, academia, and other expert venues; observations of what people do and how they behave when they are online; in-depth interviews with Internet users and Internet experts alike; and other efforts that try to examine individual and group behavior. The Project releases 15-20 pieces of research a year, varying in size, scope, and ambition. (Pew Website)

Following nicely on the heels of their report on Wikipedia usage (pdf), Pew has just relaeased "A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users" (pdf). The 65 page report strives to segment technology users in a way that makes sense for market planners, economists and other interested groups. Roughly, Pew sees

• Elite Users 31%
• Middle of the Road Users 20%
• Users w/ Few Tech Assets 49%

Each category is further broken down into interesting subsets.

A couple of really interesting things emerge from this current report. For years, I've used Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" as a guideline for explaining the penetration and percolation of technology. Moore's famous adoption curve, which includes a massive "chasm between the "early adopters" and the rest of the market, suggest that 5% to 10% of the population are early adopters.

It's pretty easy to make the case that the Pew report shows technology adoption to be a function of demographics. Thus, 20 to 30 year old white men are a huge factor in Web 2.0 usage while African Americans are driving the pure mobile adoption cycle. A stunning half (49%) of all users have limited capacities. This is in spite of the fact that half of them have really great access to the technology itself.

It will be really useful to digest this report if you are in the process of developing technology that depends on an adoption rate. Newspaper folks, job board entrepreneurs, ATS developers and new technique sourcers need to pay close attention to the market realities laid out in the report.

If half of the population doesn't like/need/use the technology irrespective of whether or not they have access to it, can widespread adoption goals really make sense?

At the same time, adoption seems clearly skewed to age. We're betting that Web 2.0 enterprises that target this segment will see big pay days.

(hat tip SearchEngineLand)

 John Sumser. - .Permalink. - .Today's Bugler . - .Send To a Friend

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