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The GVU Center has been conducting semiannual Internet use surveys since 1994. The surveys are nonrandom participant surveys completed on the Internet itself. Comparison of GVU WWW User Survey results to Internet user surveys that utilize random techniques reveals that the main area where GVU surveys show a bias exists in the experience, intensity of usage, and skill sets of the users, but not the core demographics of users. Data are freely available on the Web as a public service, although they are not highly detailed with respect to IT and the home. The GVU Center is a research center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. |
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| Time Period: | Survey conducted semiannually since 1994. |
| Availability: | Data from each survey are freely available on-line. |
| Keywords: |
Demographics/Internet usage/Culture & values/Privacy/Shopping |
| URL: | |
| Methodology: |
Purpose of Data Collection: To profile Internet users, their characteristics, and why they use the Web so as to improve development of Web-related tools and technologies and to make the Web more usable by all users. Survey Method: The WWW User Survey is a voluntary, Web-based questionnaire that reflects a nonprobabilistic sample (i.e., survey participants are not randomly selected from a defined population of Internet users). Survey Design: The target population is all Internet users throughout the world. Participants are solicited through several Web-based means, including announcements on Internet related newsgroups (e.g. comp.infosystems.www.announce, comp.internet.net-happenings, etc.); banners randomly rotated though high-exposure sites (e.g. Yahoo, CNN, Excite, Webcrawler, etc.); banners rotated through advertising networks (e.g. DoubleClick); announcements made to the www-surveying mailing list, a list maintained by GVU's WWW User Surveys composed of people interested in the surveys; and, announcements made in the popular media, (e.g., newspapers, trade magazines, etc.). Participants are thus self-selected and voluntarily complete the on-line survey. The number of participants varies from 1,500 in the first GVU survey in 1994 to more than 5,000 respondents for the tenth survey in 1998. Variables Collected: Highly detailed demographic data: age; income; race/ethnicity; employment status; occupation; marital status; physical impairment; sex; education; location (country); location (rural, urban, suburban); frequency and duration of Internet use; types of Internet use; attitudes toward the Internet. Statistical Reliability: Confidence intervals and margins of error do not apply since this is a nonprobabilistic sample. Data Limitations: The GVU Center reports that "comparisons of the GVU's WWW User Survey results to other published WWW User data that utilize random techniques reveal that the main area where GVU's surveys show a bias exists in the experience, intensity of usage, and skill sets of the users, but not the core demographics of users. Given the limitations that exist in the data as a result of the methodology, we make the following recommendation to those using the data presented within this report: We recommend that the GVU data be used with the understanding that the data has a bias towards the experienced and more frequent users than random digit dial surveys. We recommend that users interested in understanding the complete spectrum of the Internet and WWW communities augment the GVU data with random sample surveys." Additional detail on survey methodology is at http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/survey-1998-10/#methodology. |
| Notes: |
The text of survey questions is available on-line. |
| Contact Info: |
GVU Center |
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