The Digital Future is Here

The University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication released the latest installment in its "Digital Future Project," a comprehensive annual examination of the impact of online technology on America. You can read the highlights as a PDF here.

This report has a wealth of information for anyone seeking to operate in the digital world, from businesses to associations to citizens. To set some context, 43% of Internet users who are members of online communities say that they "feel as strongly" about their virtual community as they do about their real life. Now, this statistic may be scary to some. But to me it highlights the fact that people are connecting to the world around them in whole new ways. As Jeffrey Cole, the director of the project indicated ". . . we are now beginning to. . . discover new directions for the Internet as a comprehensive tool that Americans are using to touch the world."

A fundamental shift has occured -- the Internet is no longer a simple tool for information, entertainment and communication, it's becoming an integral part of how we live our lives -- and not just for the "elite few." According to the report, approximately 77% of Americans now spend some time online and the numbers continue to increase. More than 2/3rd of Americans have access at home. For those who consider the Internet to be the provenance of the elite, the rapid increases can be compared to the market penetration of the television set, which is now in 98% of homes.

What's happening when they go online? While much of it is still looking up information and sending e-mail, the increase in the creation of User Generated Content (UGC) is astonishing. Almost 1/4 of users post photos online. The number of Internet users who have a blog has doubled in three years. Over 12% of Internet users have their own website.

Perhaps more important for those who argue that the Internet is "disconnecting" and "isolating", the report shows that Internet users are finding growing numbers of friends online -- and that this often translates into in-person friends (no, I don't mean stalkers). In fact, indications are that the use of the Internet may increase communications with family and friends and does not significantly reduce the "in-person" time spent with these individuals.

One last point -- the report shows that people in online communities take offline action. "More than 1/5th . . . of online community members took actions offline at least once a a year that were related to their online community." Furthermore, ". . . almost 2/3rds of online community members who participate in social causes through the Internet . . . say they are involved in causes that were new to them when they began participating on the Internet. And more than 40% . . . participate more in social activism since they started partitipating in online communities. "

Associations and businesses are you listening? People will buy a product or take an action based on their participation in an online community. What are you doing to facilitate that?