1. Bill Dutton, Ellen Helsper, and Eric Meyer
The Internet (Web) as an Experience Technology: An Illustrative Case of Social Research
Bill Dutton, Ellen Helsper, and Eric Meyer
Oxford Internet Institute (OII)
University of Oxford
Presentation for the OII Summer Doctoral Programme, 16 July 2008.

2. Framing Research in the Social Sciences (Cyclical Process)
Topic (wonderful, but not a research problem)
What is the (a) problem that can be addressed?
What research question(s) need to be raised?
What answer(s) do you expect, based on what theoretical framework or specific theory (possibly hypotheses)
Driving Approach, Methods and Research Design
So what? What is the significance for policy/practice? Back to your contribution to topic.

3. Agenda-Setting: A Topic Arrives
OECD Study of Economics of Trust
Privacy-Trust Tension
Launching the 2003 Oxford Internet Survey
UK DTI Foresight Programme: Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention Project
Cyber Trust Trust in the Internet (Web)

4. Key Questions What do we mean by trust or cybertrust?
Do people (dis)trust the Internet (Web)?
Why?
Is trust in the Internet (Web) increasing, or declining?

5. Trust: Conceptual Definitions
Conditions of uncertainty, exposure, temptation
Conventional definition: ‘firm belief in the reliability or truth or strength etc of a person or thing … a confident expectation’ (O.E.D.)

6. Theoretical Expectations?
People (dis)trust computer-mediated communication (social psychology of communication, technological rationality)
Provenance (Wendy Hall on Monday)
Certainty trough? (Donald MacKenzie)

7. Certainty Trough

8. Refined Questions Is (dis)trust shaped by proximity to the Internet?
Will trust be enhanced or eroded overtime as the Internet becomes more embedded in work and everyday life?

9. Oxford Internet Surveys
2003, 2005 and 2007 (next in 2009)
Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels
Multi-Stage Probability Sample
England, Scotland & Wales
Respondents: 14 years and older
Face-to-face Interviews
Sponsorship from Hefce, AOL, BT, British Library, Cisco, Ofcom, Wanadoo (Orange), Talisma
Embedded with World Internet Project

10. 2003 2005 2007 Sample Sizes and Response Rates Fielded in June-July
February-March
March - April
Number of respondents
2,030
2,185
2,350
Response rate
66%
72%
77%

11. Refined Measures: Dimensions of Trust
Net-confidence: reliability of information on the net, confidence in ‘people running the Internet’, people you can communicate with on the Internet.
Net-risks: perceived risks to privacy, security of information, accurately judging quality of products

12. Source: Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), results of a nationwide representative survey of Britons aged 14 and older, 23 May-28 June Number of respondents: 2,030.

13. Source: Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), results of a nationwide representative survey of Britons aged 14 and older, 23 May-28 June Number of respondents: 2,030.

14. Trust: Confidence

15. Trust: Perceived Risk

16. Factors Shaping Trust: 2003 Findings
Net-confidence related to use of broadband, narrowband, being a drop out, and level of education (inversely)
Net-risks inversely related to use of the Net (narrow or broadband) and education

17. Social Dynamics of Cyber Trust: 2005 Analysis
Trust, distrust, and blind faith
Certainty trough?
Internet as an experience technology
Education and experience
Trust shapes use (e-commerce)
Bad experiences undermine trust

18. Perspectives on e-Social Science
What academics will be supportive of e-Research initiatives? Trust in e-Research?
Politics of Methodological Camps
Research Generations
Certainty Trough
ESRC’s Oxford e-Social Science Project, a node of the National Centre for e-Social Science, supported by the ESRC ( ; )

19. Certainty Trough

20. Sample

21. Bias of the Sample

22. Attitudes towards e-Research (I)

23. Attitudes towards e-Research (II)

24. Attitudes towards e-Research (III)

25. Indicators Proximity (additive index): Uncertainty (additive index):
NCeSS Mailing List (Yes = 1); Access Grid (Use = +1, Organized = +2), e-Social Science (Followed eSS = +1, Involved = +2)
Uncertainty (additive index):
Number of ‘Don’t Know’ responses to questions about e-Research, categorized high, medium, low
Support for e-Research (additive index):
Number of positive responses to statements about e-Research (exluding ‘adequacy of funding’; and ‘new ethical issues’), categorized high, medium, low

26. Uncertainty by Proximity

27. Support by Proximity

28. Trust in the Internet in 2007
% of trust in the internet. Information and providers are well trusted, but people to be met online are not.
Information online trusted more than in newspapers or on television (p.28 report). Newspapers are the least trusted.
Institutions internet like television news and more than companies, newspapers and the government
People less than doctors, known people, scientists, brits.
Unreliable
Neutral
Reliable
OxIS 2007 N=2,350 (users and non-users)

29. Trust trends Trust levels remained more or less the same
All: OxIS 2003 N=2,029 ; Oxis 2005 N=2,185 ; OxIS 2007 N=2,350

30. Risk perception Risk perception has increased
Internet Users: OxIS 2003 N=1,201 ; Oxis 2005 N=1,309 ; OxIS 2007 N=1,578

31. Trust over time - + Trust 2003* Trust 2007 Gender NS Social grade Age
Education -
Broadband +a
Proximity
Prox*SES +
Negative experiences
Proximity no longer significant in 2007
* From Dutton & Sheperd (2005)
a) No longer significant when only analysing users
Internet Users OxIS 2003 N=1,201; OxIS 2007 N=1,578

32. Non-Linearity (certainty trough)
General Trust 2007
Gender NS
Social grade
Age
Education -
Broadband
Proximity +
Prox*SES
Non-Linear Proximity
Negative experiences
Non-Linear indicator of proximity is valid….indicator of certainty through instead of experience technology model?
Internet Users OxIS 2007 N=1,578

33. Certainty Trough? Trust and proximity to the Internet
Differences in this graph are small because range of trust indicators not that large.
Those who are closer to the internet have lower levels of trust than those who have average proximity, but slightly higher than those who have low proximity. This is true of users of the internet but the effect becomes even stronger when ex-users are included in this calculation. (Ex-users have a higher proximity to the internet than non-users because they have at least been exposed to it for a number of years.
OxIS 2007 All N=2,350; Internet Users: N=1,578

34. A New Problem: A Changing Relationship Between Proximity and Trust in 2007 Data
Why would a certainty trough appear in 2007?

35. Explaining Trust in the Internet

36. Explaining Trust in the Internet

37. Explaining Trust in the Internet

38. The Internet (Web) as an Experience Technology
Bill Dutton, Ellen Helsper, and Eric Meyer
Oxford Internet Institute (OII)
University of Oxford
Presentation for the OII Summer Doctoral Programme, 16 July 2008.