This is a transcript of presentations and discussions at the Poland WIP meeting at which I spoke in 2011. Contrasts between Poland and the UK were interesting to me.

1. D ER
L INT
R ET W
WINT
D NET OERN PROJEC
ROJECT
ER
T CTPROJECTP
PROJE
POLISH INTERNET USERS
AS COMPARED TO THE WORLD:
WHERE AND WHICH WAY
IS THE POLISH INTERNET GOING?
Professor William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute
talks to Polish Internet researchers at the presentation of results
of the World Internet Project: Poland 2011

2. WORLD INTERNET PROJECT: POLAND 2011
This document is an edited record of speeches and presentations made at a conference held to present the results of the survey
“World Internet Project: Poland 2011”. Participants of the conference were academic and business researchers of the Internet
and representatives of companies coordinating WIP in Poland:
Prof. William Dutton (Oxford Internet Institute), Dr. Dominik Batorski (University of Warsaw),
Dr. Mirosław Filiciak (Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities), Dr. Justyna Hofmokl (Centrum Cyfrowe),
Dr. Marek Troszyński (Collegium Civitas), Dr. Jan Zając (University of Warsaw), Tomasz Józefacki (Agora),
Piotr Muszyński (TP Group), Arkadiusz Kustra (Agora), Jakub Rzeźnik (TP Group).
The meeting was held on 24th October 2011 at the premises of Agora in Warsaw.
Project idea and management: Piotr Toczyski
Editing and the text of the summary: Dariusz Ćwiklak
Organisation of the conference: Kaja Rud, Jolanta Jędrysek
Conducting the World Internet Project survey in Poland: Research and Analysis Team of Gazeta.pl
(official partner of WIP) in coordination with the TP Group Market Research Department and with Orange: Piotr Toczyski,
Arkadiusz Kustra, Maria Gerszewska, Jakub Rzeźnik
Information on the World Internet Project:
Participants of the survey conducted every year in more than a dozen countries of the world are asked questions, prepared using
strict methodology, about such things as: access to the Internet, reasons for and purposes of using or not using the Internet,
media consumption time, ways of using the Internet and their online experience, perception of security in the Internet, Internet
as a factor reinforcing or weakening contacts with the social environment, influence of the Internet on the interviewees’ public
life awareness, credibility of information on the Internet, Internet and other media as information and entertainment source,
time spent offline with family and friends, multitasking, feelings and opinions on freedom of expression and the public sphere.
The World Internet Project is a leading international project monitoring transformations of the media and their influence on
social and economic phenomena. About thirty reputable centres from all around the world participate in the WIP research,
which is coordinated by the prestigious USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern
California. In Poland, the exclusive partners of the World Internet Project are Agora (official partner) and TP Group.
Professor Dutton, a long–standing director of the Oxford Internet Institute, is responsible, among others, for the Oxford e–Social
Science Project, supported by the Research Committee of the Economic and Social Research Council.
He actively participates in Oxford Internet Surveys, which are the key source of information about the use of Internet in the UK
and are an element of the World Internet Project. William H. Dutton is currently working on the idea of “the fifth power”, i.e.
Internet media. His interests include such topics as organising a cooperation network similar to web 2.0 and research on next
generation politics.
CONTENTS
Next generation Internet users.............................................................................................. 3
Why are we involved in WIP? ................................................................................................ 7
Quality of content is determinant .......................................................................................... 8
Discussion on the results of the World Internet Project: Poland 2011 .................................................. 9
Next generation users in the UK and in Poland (speech by Prof. William Dutton) ................................... 13
Discussion of Polish Internet researchers ................................................................................. 18
2

3. NEXT GENERATION INTERNET USERS
T
hey have access to the Internet any- In the UK such users started to appear in 2007,
time, anywhere, they don’t just sit but in the recent years their number has grown
in front of a PC at home. They are rapidly (one of the reasons being the smartphone
active, they are eager to consume and tablet revolution). “Next generation users
culture also in the offline world. move around and use the Internet instead of be-
But they don’t want to pay for ing tied to a home computer,” said Prof. Dutton.
books, films or music online. These are next gen- This does not mean that home PCs are a thing of
eration users who have already started appearing the past, they’re still the main anchor to the In-
in Poland. ternet. “But readers, tablets, etc. extend and
“A new kind of digital divide is emerging, a di- complement what you do at home. They allow you
vide between first and next generation users,” to bring the Internet with you and use it seam-
said Prof. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet lessly elsewhere,” said Prof. Dutton.
Institute when he was presenting the results of In Poland the mobile revolution is still to come.
the British edition of World In- According to the Polish edition
ternet Project surveys. Sociolo- of the World Internet Project
gists are already concerned with PROF. DUTTON 2011, 10 per cent of Internet
the first type of digital divide – ABOUT BRITAIN: users go online using their mo-
between Internet users and British next generation biles (2 percentage points more
those who don’t spend time on- users are more likely to pay than in the previous year). –
line. This is because Internet for services online, but “However, in groups which are
helps to raise the quality of life when it comes to the the first to adopt new tech-
thanks to quick access to infor- question if it is appropriate nologies, this percentage is
mation, cheaper and more con- to download music without much higher. For example, as
venient services, etc. However, paying, they are more likely much as 20 per cent of students
a large part of the society (more to agree. So we’ve got access the Internet using their
than one in four British people a really complex set mobiles,” said Arkadiusz Kustra
and almost one in three Poles) of attitudes about payment from the research and analysis
don’t use the Internet. online department of Gazeta.pl. As the
Meanwhile, the results of the Polish edition of the World In-
British surveys show more and more clearly a di- ternet Project shows, in the last year there’s been
vide between those users who are more experi- an increase in the number of people using laptops
enced, more active, and those who use the Inter- – from 20 to 28 per cent.
net only at a basic level. “Next generation users are much more likely to
generate content. They visit social networking
The mobile, the active, the creative sites, post photos, post videos, they have their
personal websites, write blogs,” said Prof. Dut-
In the British edition of the World Internet Proj- ton. They are also more likely to use the Internet
ect, Prof. William Dutton distinguished a group of for entertainment: they download and listen to
next generation users. “These are people who ac- music. Of course, the Internet is also their basic
cess the Internet not only using their home PC or source of information.
laptop. They have multiple devices: a tablet, Dr. Justyna Hofmokl of Centrum Cyfrowe and
smartphone, e–book reader, and they use at least Dr. Mirosław Filiciak of the Warsaw School of So-
some of them on the go, to access the Internet in cial Sciences and Humanities are convinced that
a mobile way,” explained Prof. Dutton. next generation users have already appeared in
3

4. Poland. They conducted an online survey on al- instant messengers, e–mail or data storage de-
ternative forms of exchanging content in the In- vices). Most of them are males and young people.
ternet. “In this group, 39 per cent of the respon- “Already two years ago we conducted a survey,
dents said they accessed the Internet using mo- together with Gazeta.pl, which told us that there’s
bile devices,” said Dr. Hofmokl. a huge group of people in Poland who regularly
“A group of people who transfer at least a part watch American TV series which can’t be watched
of their social lives to the Internet is also more legally in Poland. They just download them from
and more prominent. Some even say that “if you’re the Internet,” reminded Dr. Mirosław Filiciak. The
not on Facebook, you don’t exist,” said Dr. Marek online research on the scale of piracy, which was
Troszyński of Collegium Civitas. conducted this year by Dr. Filiciak and Dr. Hofmokl,
However, in the Polish edition of the World In- reveals that even one in four Internet users down-
ternet Project those active users are not so well load such “free” content regularly.
visible yet. “We must remember that the popula- According to Dr. Filiciak, in terms of scale this
tion of Internet users is still not fully developed,” informal culture flow in the Internet can be com-
reminded Dr. Hofmokl. – “The website Nasza–Klasa pared to the official circulation in the real world,
was most successful in popularising the Internet that is buying books, films, CDs, etc. What’s in-
in Poland, but it’s a rather pas- teresting, as Dr. Hofmokl point-
sive website. People joined it to ed out, the same people who ex-
meet their old friends, but that’s PROF. DUTTON change cultural content infor-
basically it.” ABOUT POLAND: mally on the Internet are also
“We have two types of Inter- I think you are probably in ready to spend money on legal
net users in Poland,” argued Dr. the old Internet world, with CDs, go to concerts, buy books.
Dominik Batorski of the Univer- most of the rest of Europe,” They even visit libraries.
sity of Warsaw, a co–author of said Prof. Dutton. “But Dr. Filiciak argued that pira-
the Social Diagnosis research. you’re moving in the cy on the Internet is not a pure-
“Some use it chiefly to develop direction of the new ly Polish problem. “From the
their interests, to work or study, Internet world in that sense Swedish edition of the World In-
while the others treat it mainly that users are becoming ternet Project we can find out
as a source of entertainment. more active. You still seem that sharing files on the Inter-
The first group are mainly peo- uncertain about freedom of net is an important part of young
ple with better education, from expression and whether Swedes’ culture, just like writ-
larger towns. People who can’t Internet can be trusted ing blogs is important for the
use the Internet to improve their as a medium culture of young Swedish
life situation are not very much women,” he said. “It is clear
different from those who have no Internet access that this is not just an issue of respect for the law,
at all,” said Dr. Batorski. but a kind of paradigm change.”
“British next generation users are more likely
Pirates out of necessity? to pay for services online, but when it comes to
the question if it is appropriate to download mu-
One of the things researched in the Polish edition sic without paying, they are more likely to agree.
of the World Internet Project 2011 was the scale So we’ve got a really complex set of attitudes
of the online circulation of books, music and films. about payment online,” added Prof. Dutton.
“Of course it often happens without the consent “In Poland the discourse has long been domi-
of people holding copyrights to these works,” ex- nated by the large publishers who cry that down-
plained Arkadiusz Kustra of Gazeta.pl. According loading music from the Internet is serious piracy.
to the surveys, as many as two thirds of the Pol- Much less is said about other examples of young
ish Internet users have ever accessed electronic artists for whom the possibility of downloading
cultural content in one way or another (using P2P files means an opportunity to make a career,” said
software, file sharing sites such as Chomikuj.pl, Dr. Jan Zając from the University of Warsaw.
4

5. “Users want to decide for themselves what they Internet world. These new users are also more in-
consume, when and how. To some extent, the novative and active than those from the old In-
problem of piracy follows from the fact that busi- ternet world.
ness does not respond well to this demand. Busi- Which world does Poland belong to? “I think you
ness tries to maintain constant ways of delivering are probably in the old Internet world, with most
content, saying: we will give you this content, you of the rest of Europe,” said Prof. Dutton. “But
can use it so and so. New models are necessary,” you’re moving in the direction of the new Inter-
pointed out Dr. Dominik Batorski. net world in that sense that users are becoming
“One of the critical issues in the future of the In- more active. You still seem uncertain about free-
ternet and e–commerce is to figure out better busi- dom of expression and whether Internet can be
ness models that can be applied to the news, to trusted as a medium. I think there’s a moment of
music, and so forth. Unfortunately, rather than look- decision in Poland about where you’re set in this
ing for new business models that are appropriate worldwide map.”
in the Internet age, people are One of the important prob-
trying to hold these old business lems of the modern Internet is
models using law. That creates a DR. HOFMOKL: the issue of data privacy. “Ac-
really terrible atmosphere in Polish Internet users hardly cording to the results of the
which we try to delegitimise ac- use any services online. World Internet Project, 42 per
tivities that are viewed as ap- They are not even aware cent of Polish Internet users do
propriate by most people,” of these services. There not have a problem with posting
agreed Prof. William Dutton. should be more pressure on private information and photos
offices to take more on the Internet,” said Arkadiusz
New Internet, traditional initiatives of this kind, Kustra of Gazeta.pl. “The per-
values because the Internet should centage is a little smaller than
enter not only the world last year. The increase in the
“Today the centre of gravity of of entertainment but also popularity of social networking
the Internet is shifting to Asia, the sphere of practical life sites probably made the Polish
where there are 40 per cent of people more aware of the con-
all Internet users globally,” said sequences of uploading their
Prof. William Dutton. “A new In- lives to the Internet.”
ternet world is emerging. America and Europe are “Next generation users are less concerned about
declining as a proportion of Internet users. Today, privacy,” said Prof. Dutton. „The people who are
there are more Chinese online than there are most frightened of the Internet in terms of priva-
Americans on the planet!” cy or surveillance are those people who have nev-
Prof. William Dutton conducted the Global Val- er used the Internet. People who have experience
ues Project survey ordered by the World Econom- online realise that they can do things without high
ic Forum. He interviewed Internet users from 13 risk. But they do not develop a blind trust in the
countries (Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Cana- Internet or silly optimism.”
da, China, France, Germany, Italy, India, Mexico, Around 30 per cent of Polish Internet users ad-
South Africa, Spain, USA, UK) on various basic val- mitted to WIP interviewers that they fear their
ues. “I have good news for you: the new centre of online activity is watched by the government or
gravity of the Internet is not necessarily going to companies. “Prof. Jeffrey Cole, the head of the
result in a change in culture that will undermine World Internet Project, wrote: ‘today Big Broth-
freedom of expression and other values that are er is big business.’ Large companies check what
important to the Internet,” said Prof. Dutton. consumers do in the Internet and it seems that
Some Internet users from Asia and quickly de- Polish Internet users are growing more and more
veloping countries are even more willing to sup- aware of that fact,” commented Kustra.
port some basic values in the Internet, such as “It’s very worrisome that you have the sense of
freedom of expression, than people from the old being watched online,” said Prof. Dutton. – But
5

6. this could be changing globally. If Jeff Cole is right, remember that among these 62 per cent of peo-
this can have a huge chilling effect on the future ple who use the Internet, 8 per cent are those who
of the Internet. It could be absolutely a disaster use it for less than an hour a week, which means:
if people do not try to protect the Internet as a hardly ever,” said Arkadiusz Kustra. „On the oth-
place where you can have secure, anonymous, er hand, in the group of people who do not use
free and open expression and get access to infor- the Internet 41 per cent have somebody they ask
mation.” to look different things up on the Internet. These
“At a recent conference celebrating the tenth people are therefore within the reach of infor-
anniversary of the Oxford Internet Institute, the mation published on the Internet.”
words ‘privacy is over’ could be heard in every What is worrying is that as many as 87 per cent
second speech,” said Dr. Jan Zając. “According to of people who do not use the Internet do not feel
Manuel Castells, the governments are all the time they miss something, and only 4 per cent of them
trying to control the Internet or at least watch plan to start using the Internet within the next six
closely what’s going on there. In Poland this has months.
been clearly visible in the last months, when a lot “People who don’t have access to the Internet
of legislative initiatives and similar projects ap- don’t understand what they are missing,” ex-
peared.” plained Prof. Dutton. “The Internet is an experi-
“Who are we really afraid of?” asked Dr. Marek ence technology. You can’t explain the Internet
Troszyński of Collegium Civitas. “In the first Pol- to somebody, just like you can’t explain a search
ish edition of the World Internet Project the main engine or social networking. Nobody will under-
threat to people’s privacy were clearly corpora- stand this unless they start using it. People don’t
tions. Now more and more people fear that our understand the Internet until they experience it
activity could be monitored by the government. and they don’t think they need to experience it
This is a very philosophical question: about the because they don’t think they need it. It’s a real
limits of freedom of expression and other similar conundrum.”
issues fundamental for the functioning of a soci- But even those who have been using the Inter-
ety. It seems completely legitimate to me to treat net for a long time don’t do it very actively. “The
the Internet as a public sphere where we should research shows that Polish Internet users hardly
be responsible for what we say. This leads to a con- use any services online,” said Dr. Justyna Hofmokl.
tradiction: on the one hand, Internet users are for “Only a small percentage of people participated
freedom of expression, but against offending oth- in the last census online, people don’t send tax
ers. On the other hand, on the Internet there is a returns via the Internet, although it’s really get-
lot of hate speech and attempts of political par- ting easier all the time. This means that they are
ties to use it for their own interests. The question not even aware of these services. There should be
is how this organism can regulate itself.” more pressure on offices to take more initiatives
“We shouldn’t talk about the Internet as one of this kind, because the Internet should enter not
space, but rather about different spaces within only the world of entertainment but also the
the Internet,” pointed out Dr. Dominik Batorski. sphere of practical life.”
“The internet needs places where there is no “Paradoxically, although more and more of us
anonymity, but also places which ensure anonymi- use the Internet, our online world and our offline
ty, to provide a forum for people living in author- reality are growing more and more apart,” said
itarian regimes or workers who are afraid to talk Dr. Marek Troszyński. “It would seem that the In-
openly about breaking the law in their companies.” ternet could be a great tool to do research on can-
didates in the recent parliamentary elections. It
How to experience the Internet? turns out, however, that again over 90 per cent of
the votes were cast for people from the first places
According to the World Internet Project 2011, 62 in the candidate lists. The potential of the Inter-
per cent of Poles use the Internet, while 38 per net does not translate into our real lives as well
cent don’t use it even occasionally. “But we should as I would expect.”
6

7. WHY ARE WE INVOLVED IN WIP?
Ladies and Gentlemen, nication, and now the Oxford
My name is Tomasz Józefacki TOMASZ Internet Institute in the UK.
and I am a director at Agora re- JÓZEFACKI Why did Agora get involved in
sponsible for online activities of AGORA SA WIP? For many years we have
the company. For some time been propagating knowledge on
now we have been inviting what Internet is and how it
world–famous authorities who changes the world around us
can determine the direction in – we try to make this knowledge
which the Internet is going. So familiar, gather and interpret
far our invitations have been ac- For many years we have it. The Internet is an excep-
cepted by such people as Pro- been propagating knowledge tionally important medium for
fessor Manuel Castells of the on what Internet is and how a company like Agora, because
University of Southern Califor- it changes the world around it is the platform on which we
nia, Professor Anne Nelson of us – we try to make this are building our new media and
the Columbia University and knowledge familiar, gather multimedia reality. We try to
Professor Jeffrey Cole of the An- and interpret it find out how the Internet works
nenberg School for Communi- as a medium, how it changes
cation, the originator of the the general media reality, and
World Internet Project. how people use different media – for the Inter-
This year, we are organising the second edition net has a huge influence on the way we consume
of WIP for which we have invited Professor William
, television, the press, radio. A completely new re-
Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute. Prof. Dut- ality is emerging around us.
ton has been researching the Internet for many I would like to express my sincere thanks to the
years, he has always cooperated with very pres- TP Group, who for the second time helped us in
tigious institutions having a scientific interest in the WIP research – the project would not have suc-
the Internet: the Annenberg School for Commu- ceeded like it did without this important support.
R ORLD ET
N W On the pages
EW DRNETINTER
LTE ECT
P
NE
ROJ
ECT
TER
TIN OJECT
PR
worldinternetproject.net and badania.gazeta.pl
you can find the full reports of the “World Internet Project:
Poland” from 2010 and 2011 with extensive commentary by
N ROJ
ECTP Prof. Jeffrey Cole of USC Annenberg School for Communication
ROJ
CTP
(2010) and Prof. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute
(2011) and texts by Polish Internet researchers
7

8. QUALITY OF CONTENT IS DETERMINANT
Ladies and Gentlemen, made Agora the only online con-
Agora is a very important PIOTR tent provider who could be ac-
partner for the TP Group, not MUSZYŃSKI cessed all the time.
only in this project. I will tell VICE–PRESIDENT The conclusion is that without
you an interesting story which OF TP thorough knowledge, without re-
shows why is it good to build re- search, without deep analytical
lations going beyond business approach we are not able to un-
as usual. derstand the evolution of users’
You surely remember one of behaviour patterns, which cre-
the most dramatic events in the The customer functions ate the users’ profiles. Besides,
history of Poland: the crash of in the open Internet space, this is probably the most dy-
the government plane on 10th creating new customs, namically changing element of
April 2010. On that day we ex- habits, needs, and we need functioning of customers of both
perienced in Poland a telecom- to answer them. This is why IT companies and operators of
munications crisis, which last- this kind of research and platforms generating content.
ed 45 minutes. There was a our participation are so Access to the Internet itself
black–out in all mobile networks important is no longer a value. It’s just a
and the landline network suf- door which brings the customers
fered from a significant deteri- closer to knowledge, to partic-
oration in availability to all sorts of services. The ular content. Today the quality of the Internet is
problems affected not only mobile phones, me- determined by the quality of content distributed
dia, but also providers giving access to platforms by the operators. This is why we are so interest-
with news content. ed in understanding where our market is going,
Several weeks earlier we had completed a proj- how our customers are developing. As a telecom-
ect with Agora which provided an innovative so- munications operator we are no longer a genera-
lution for managing the traffic of people access- tor of events, we don’t invite technological solu-
ing Agora’s platform. We had built the first ex- tions. We try to research and respond to what the
perimental Content Delivery Network (CDN) in market and the customers create today. It is the
Poland – based on eight dedicated servers, which customer who functions in the open Internet space,
replicate geographically the content on Agora’s creating new customs, habits, needs, and we need
platform so that the users – recognised by their to answer them. This is why this kind of research
IPs – could obtain content from one of them. This and our participation are so important.
EDWT
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On the pages
EDWOR
worldinternetproject.net and badania.gazeta.pl
TER
IN
NET OJECT
L TER OJECTPR you can find the full reports of the “World Internet Project:
IN
R NET CTPR Poland” from 2010 and 2011 with extensive commentary by
NTE JECTPRO
JE
CTP
RO Prof. Jeffrey Cole of USC Annenberg School for Communication
(2010) and Prof. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute
(2011) and texts by Polish Internet researchers
8

9. DISCUSSION ON THE RESULTS OF THE
WORLD INTERNET PROJECT: POLAND 2011
ARKADIUSZ KUSTRA: mer holidays, 62 per cent of
Ladies and Gentlemen, ARKADIUSZ Poles use the Internet, while 38
I have the pleasure to present KUSTRA per cent don’t use it even oc-
you the results of the second AGORA SA casionally. A simple divide be-
edition of the World Internet RESEARCH AND tween those who do and don’t
Project survey in Poland. My ANALYSIS TEAM OF use the Internet is a gross sim-
name is Arkadiusz Kustra and I GAZETA.PL plification. Among the 62 per
represent the research and cent of people who use the In-
analysis team of the website ternet, 8 per cent are those who
Gazeta.pl. JAKUB use it for less than an hour a
First let me tell you about the RZEŹNIK week, which means: hardly
research method. This year, just TP GROUP ever. On the other hand, 41 per
like last year, the survey was MARKET RESEARCH cent of those who do not use
conducted by the IPSOS Insti- DEPARTMENT the Internet have somebody
tute, to which I would like to OF THE TP GROUP they ask to look different things
express my gratitude. A random up on the Internet. In a way,
sample of two thousand people these people are within the
were selected for the inter- KUSTRA: reach of information published
views, which were conducted A simple divide between on the Internet.
using the CAPI method in the in- those who do and don’t use In Poland, just like in many
terviewees’ homes. the Internet is a gross other countries, the mobile rev-
Based on our experiences simplification. Among the olution is still to come. Accord-
from the previous year, we in- 62 per cent of people who ing to the survey, 10 per cent of
troduced some improvements use the Internet, 8 per cent Internet users access the Inter-
in the research method. The ba- are those who use it for less net using their mobile phones,
sic instrument of the survey is a than an hour a week, which which is 2 percentage points
very extensive questionnaire. means: hardly ever more than in the previous year.
Before we started the survey, This increase is not spectacular,
we did some test interviews, so it seems that the revolution
watched them through a two– is still before us. However, it
way mirror and modified our re- should come rather soon, as in
search tools to make the survey as easy for the some groups which are usually most likely to adopt
interviewee as possible. Secondly, we improved new technologies this percentage is much high-
the sampling method. We are very satisfied with er, for example as many as 20 (rather than 10) per
these changes and we believe that the survey is cent of students access the Internet using their
representative for the population of Poles aged mobiles. In the last year, there’s been an increase
15 or more, representative for the population of in the number of people using laptops – as many
Internet users, people who don’t use the Inter- as 28 per cent of Poles have a laptop computer
net, and also has the dimension of a penetrative (compared to 20 per cent last year). We should
research – it precisely determines the proportion keep in mind, however, that the most popular de-
of people who do and don’t use the Internet in vice for accessing the Internet is still a PC.
Poland. It turns out that 87 per cent of people who don’t
According to this edition of the World Internet use the Internet even occasionally do not feel
Project survey, conducted just before the sum- they miss something. Only 4 per cent of them are
9

10. planning to start using the Internet within the are both in the third position. We can wonder if
next six months. As I said earlier, 41 per cent of further increases will be possible given the sta-
people who don’t use the Internet have some- ble position of the other sources of communica-
body they ask to look different things up on the tion, information or entertainment, especially
Internet, that is a proxy user. These results were the dominating role of television.
quite surprising for us. Why do fewer people use In the field of communication, the clear leader
the services of proxy users? Why is the number of is mobile communications, with the importance
people who plan to start using the Internet falling, of landline telephones declining. The only means
and the number of people who don’t miss the In- of communication whose importance is going up
ternet – increasing? We have several hypotheses, are those connected with the Internet: electron-
for example a pessimistic one – that people who ic mail and Internet phone services. Interesting-
don’t use the Internet are in a way drifting apart, ly, despite the increase in the number of users of
they lost hope that they will learn to use this medi- social networking sites, their importance is not
um. Another theory is that those who did not use growing.
the Internet last year have split into two groups: We have also asked the interviewees to put five
some of them already use the Internet, and the types of media in order, depending on how diffi-
other group, more obstinate, cult it would be for them to give
are people who refuse to do so. them up. As in the last year, TV
We should remember, however, RZEŹNIK: ranked first, which means that
that we have modified the sam- It turns out that the younger Poles are most reluctant to give
ple, which could have influ- the age group, the easier it up this medium. The next places
enced this change. How signif- is to find people who use are occupied by mobile phones,
icant it was, we will certainly the Internet more than radio, the Internet and, finally,
find out in subsequent surveys 10 hours a week. The older landline phones. Most interest-
in the years to come. Poles are, the more likely ing are the results in individual
they are to watch television age groups. In 2010, in the two
JAKUB RZEŹNIK: over 10 hours a week youngest age groups, television
What is the position of the In- was in third place, not first. On-
ternet among other media? As ly teenagers viewed the Inter-
far as information is concerned, net as a medium which would
only the smallest percentage of Poles over the be most difficult to give up. This year, however,
age of 15 view the Internet as an important or the Internet is the most important medium also
rather important source of information. At the for people in the age group of 20–24. This may be
same time, it is the only source of information a sign that a group of digital natives is emerging
whose significance is growing year by year – from in Poland, that is people who grow up in the en-
55 to 59 per cent. The other sources of informa- vironment of digital technologies, computers and
tion remain stable or their importance is de- the Internet. The Internet also becomes increas-
creasing. It is possible that the increase in the im- ingly popular among the oldest users. This year,
portance of the Internet is connected with the in the age category of 50–59, it overtook landline
greater number of Internet users in our sample, phones and now ranks fourth.
but nevertheless it seems that this is a growing We also asked Poles over 15 how long they used
trend. TV or the Internet in a week. Just like in the pre-
The leading medium, as a source of both en- vious year, most people spend long hours in front
tertainment and information, is television. As far of TV, and a little smaller group in front of the In-
as sources of entertainment are concerned, we ternet – more than 10 hours in a week. There’s a
have observed only one change in comparison with strong and interesting trend connected with age
the last year – it’s again the Internet, which went – it turns out that the younger the age group, the
up by 8 percentage points. This means that the easier it is to find people who use the Internet
Internet is catching up with the press and they more than 10 hours a week. The older Poles are,
10

11. the more likely they are to watch television over tion: “Have you ever used music, films or books
10 hours a week. These proportions are equal in in electronic form which have been obtained in
the age group of 30–39, while last year they were one of the following manners:
equal in the group of around 25–39. The Internet n downloading from file sharing sites, such as
is therefore winning new fans. Chomikuj.pl,
n downloading by means of peer–2–peer soft-
ARKADIUSZ KUSTRA: ware,
We have also examined Poles’ reading habits and n sending via e–mail or instant messenger,
the impact of the Internet on reading traditional n copying with the use of data storage devices
books. On average, Poles claim they read six books (USB flash drives or CDs), etc.”
a year, while one third of Poles did not read any The figures were quite high. Many people – for
book whatsoever last year. Last year the inter- example 39 per cent of Internet users – say they
viewees claimed they read seven books a year. use programs downloaded with peer–2–peer soft-
Internet users read more – seven books, while peo- ware. Almost half of them use files downloaded
ple who don’t use the Internet – four books. Half from file sharing sites such as Chomikuj.pl. As Dr.
of those who don’t use the Internet have not read Mirosław Filiciak pointed out on seeing these re-
any book last year, while among Internet users sults, this is a very delicate issue. We ask the in-
this percentage is at the level terviewees about behaviours
of about 20 per cent. Does it that are often illegal, so if they
mean that the Internet has a RZEŹNIK: don’t tell us the truth, it’s more
positive influence on reading Active shoppers – people likely that they understate the
books? Rather not. Internet buying things online at least answers rather than exaggerate
users are simply a different once a week – are 6 per them.
group from those who don’t use cent of Internet users. I think that for the first time
the Internet: they are better ed- Almost 40 per cent of we have captured the scale of
ucated, more wealthy, they Internet users have not informal flow of content in the
have probably always read bought anything online Internet. In total, these ways of
more. We tried to determine so far accessing films, music and
the influence of the Internet on books are used by exactly two
reading books by asking this year an additional thirds of Internet users. They are more frequently
questions: how has using the Internet influenced men and young people – teenagers and people be-
your reading habits. The majority – 61 per cent – fore thirty use them on a large scale, more than
answered that they read more or less the same half of them did it in the last month.
number of books. Interestingly, 19 per cent an-
swered that they read fewer books than before JAKUB RZEŹNIK:
they started using the Internet, and only 2 per Another important activity of Internet users is on-
cent admitted they read more now. Another in- line shopping. The total number of people who
teresting thing is that among people who don’t do shopping online – 59 per cent – seems a lot.
use the Internet the decline in the number of When we analyse these results more closely, it
books read was larger, which means that the In- turns out that more than a half of online shoppers
ternet is not the only cause of this drop. do it more rarely than once a month. Active shop-
The Internet gives a new life to books, but al- pers – people buying things online at least once a
so to other cultural and art products, such as films week – are 6 per cent of Internet users. Almost 40
or music – they can be easily distributed, trans- per cent of Internet users have not bought any-
ferred, copied, downloaded. Of course this flow thing online so far. Women do shopping a little
is not always legal, it often happens without the more frequently than men, and the most active
consent of people holding copyrights to these group are people aged 20–39. Things most often
works. This year we tried to examine the scale of bought online are clothes and shoes. One in two
this phenomenon, by asking the following ques- respondents claim that they bought something
11

12. from this category in the last year. The next places than those who do. However, this trend indicates
are occupied by household appliances, electron- that the recent increase in the popularity of so-
ic devices and books, with drugs and food being cial networking sites in Poland made the Polish
the least popular categories. people more aware of the consequences of up-
Services look even worse. The most frequent- loading their lives to the Internet. Secondly,
ly bought services are tickets about 30 per cent of Polish In-
and hairdresser or beauty salon ternet users are afraid that the
appointments. The figures, how- KUSTRA: government or companies mon-
ever, are similar to those for the It can be supposed, itor our activity online. Pro-
products which are purchased therefore, that online fessor Jeffrey Cole, the origi-
least frequently. It can be sup- shopping is still not a threat nator of the World Internet
posed, therefore, that online to traditional commerce, at Project, wrote: “today Big
shopping is still not a threat to least not in all categories Brother is big business.” Large
traditional commerce, at least companies monitor what con-
not in all categories. sumers do online and it seems
that Polish Internet users are
ARKADIUSZ KUSTRA: slowly growing aware of this fact. Thirdly, half
Finally, some results relating to the sense of pri- of the Polish Internet users agree with the state-
vacy in the Internet. Firstly, 42 per cent of Pol- ment that people should not be afraid to criti-
ish Internet users have no problem with posting cise the government in the Internet – and this
private information and photos online. This val- group is getting smaller. Only one in two inter-
ue has decreased but it is still high – the number viewees agree with this. In the USA this group
of people who have no such concerns is higher amounts to 70 per cent.
R ORLD ET
N W
On the pages
EW D
LTERNETI NT
NTE
ETI JECT
ERNJECTPRO
ECT
PRO
R
worldinternetproject.net and badania.gazeta.pl
you can find the full reports of the “World Internet Project:
Poland” from 2010 and 2011 with extensive commentary by
N ROJ
CTP Prof. Jeffrey Cole of USC Annenberg School for Communication
OJE
CTPR
(2010) and Prof. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute
(2011) and texts by Polish Internet researchers
12

13. NEXT GENERATION USERS:
FOCUS ON UK AND POLAND
Thank you, everyone, for wel- Our survey is very similar to
coming me here, and also for PROF. your World Internet Project sur-
the invitation to speak at this WILLIAM vey – we have the same age
event. DUTTON group, we do multi–stage prob-
I congratulate the World In- OXFORD INTERNET ability samples, so we can ex-
ternet Project team in Poland. INSTITUTE trapolate to Britain as a whole.
We have been doing surveys like We have about the same num-
you’ve just heard presented for ber of people surveyed – about
a number of years and I know how difficult it is 2 thousand every survey year. We get multiple
and how much effort it takes. Thanks also to the sponsors, including Ofcom, mobile phone com-
sponsors. This survey research is very difficult and pany, O2, ITV, and the British Library. And we are
expensive to do. Every additional survey means a part of World Internet Project. We started in
that the value of what you’ve done increases dra- 2003, so by 2011, you begin to see major evidence
matically because you begin to see real trends as of trends.
you have data over time. I’ll speak about some of Everyone is talking about trends in internet use.
the trends we see in the UK and globally. But what are they? Of course they talk about iPads,
I was particularly impressed – and I’m sure iPhones, new smartphones and new tablet com-
you’ve had the same sense – that the team has puters or the growth of mobile in a variety of
reported to you what they found. They have not countries. And we of course found evidence of a
tried to impose any particular interpretation number of those trends. For example in the UK
on the data. And I think that’s ideal as you seek 3/4 of homes have a computer. But we saw growth
to develop your own interpretation of the find- of the number of computers in households. A lot
ings. of homes have three or more computers. I know
I know you are not as interested in Britain as we in this room are different from most people,
you are in Poland, so I’m going to try to briefly as we are involved in communications, but there
present some ideas that have come out of the are times when I’ve had three or four computers
trends I see in Britain and worldwide. And then on my desk. But 18 per cent of homes in Britain
we can talk about how Poland fits in developing have three computers or more.
trends in other countries around the world. We also noticed growth in the number of de-
First I am going to talk about the ‘next gene- vices generally. We see an up tick in the handheld
ration user’. readers – that was the first time we asked about
There is an old Greek aphorism saying “Know readers in the Oxford Internet Survey and about
thyself”. The problem within the computing world 7 per cent of people have a reader. You can see
is that most people designing a computer system significant growth in the use of tablet computers
often think only about themselves. Many people in the last several years but in the last 2 years the
concerned about better design say that if you de- growth has been the most dramatic.
sign for telecommunications or computing you We were trying to make sense of this and we
should think about the user. “Know thy user” rather saw two things going on: one is the real growth
than “Know thyself”. in the mobile use of the internet. And also growth
I think what we should start thinking about is in the number of devices people are using. They
designing for the future, for what the users are are using readers, tablets. You saw growth of lap-
moving toward. “Know thy next generation user” top computers in Poland as well. There is more
is what I think we should be talking about now. portability, mobility over multiple devices, peo-
Let me explain. ple are using them anywhere, anytime.
13

14. We have created an indicator that put togeth- tiple devices and carry them with them. There is
er people who have multiple devices and use some an interaction between patterns of access and
of those devices to access the internet in a mo- patterns of use that is quite important. But clear-
bile way. And then we have discovered the next ly, the next generation user is much more aligned
generation user, with 44 per cent of users in Britain with sort of Web 2.0 world in which users are gen-
being the next generation users. Then we worked erating content.
backwards to estimate how this changed over Also you can see dramatic differences between
time. And you could see that in began in 2007 but the first generation and next generation users in
it has increased dramatically. Our whole report their use of internet for entertainment. Listen-
is about the rise of the next generation user. And ing to or downloading music is much more popu-
I think the next generation user is coming in lar among next generation users. They want to
Poland. download and listen to music on the move, they
It’s interesting to me that this change is going download, create movies and so forth.
on amid real stability. On one hand, you see that Less dramatic of a difference is in use of the
actual access to the internet has not changed dra- internet for information. That’s partly because
matically over time. Even in 2003 59 per cent of almost everybody in Britain is relying more on the
people in Britain 14 years or older were using the internet for information.
internet. And it only has come to 73 per cent in I think it’s a very interesting difference between
2011. The digital divide in Poland and the UK. In Britain
Britain is still very significant. people trust the information
More than a quarter of people PROF. DUTTON: they can get online about as
in Britain are not online. We have discovered the much as they do on broadcast
But looking at that stability is next generation user, with television. They actually trust
deceptive because what we are 44 per cent of users in information they get online
seeing is really dramatic trans- Britain being the next more than newspapers and ra-
formation in the way people are generation users. I think the dio for example. Over 30 per
using the internet. You can see next generation user is cent of people in Britain say
an increase of next generation coming in Poland that the internet is essential for
users from 13 per cent of the their information needs, they
British public in 2007 to 44 per don’t know what they would do
cent in 2011. Patterns of use of if they don’t have access to the
the internet change even though internet because that’s the first
use of the internet is not dramatically increasing. place they go for information for almost every-
Does it make a difference? I would argue yes, thing they do.
it does. We are finding a very strong relationship I often call this “the Obama syndrome”. Barack
between patterns of access and the way people Obama when he was elected president wouldn’t
use the internet. know what to do because they wouldn’t let him
Here is an example. People who are using the have his Blackberry. He didn’t know what he was
internet as next generation users are much more going to do without it because it became an es-
likely to be generating content. They are visiting sential part of his life, so they figured out how he
social networking sites, posting photos, posting could use the Blackberry as president.
videos, they have a personal website, they write Information needs are absolutely essential for
a blog, they post creative work. All of it being a growing proportion of people in Britain. It’s very
large difference between the first and the next curious that people are less trustful about the in-
generation users. I’m not saying that being a next formation they get online in Poland. But it’s a dif-
generation user causes people to use the net dif- ferent body of content that we are talking about,
ferently. I suppose that if people want to post con- different language and so forth.
tent and want to use the internet in the Web 2.0– Obviously next generation users are likely to
type way, they may be more prone to have mul- use the internet more on the move – they use it
14

15. at their neighbour’s house, internet cafes, on the ing access to the internet follows and reinforces
move, at work, at school, at public libraries. The social and economic divides in society. More ed-
next generation user is moving around and using ucated people, wealthier people have access to
the internet instead of being anchored in the the internet and they get advantages. People who
household. do not have access to the internet do not ’get it’
Importantly, of course, and consistent with the – they don’t understand its benefits.
survey in Poland, the PC in a home remains a very The internet is an experience technology. It is
fundamental anchor to the internet. A lot of peo- not that you can’t explain the internet to some-
ple thought that if you move towards appliances body, just like you can explain a search engine or
like tablet computers, they would replace the PC social networking. But nobody understands these
and internet would get “dumbed down”, be less technologies unless they use them. Once they do
generative, less open, less creative. We are find- and have experience using that, they say: “Aha!
ing that that is not happening. The PC still re- Wow! I can do this or I can find this.”
mains – it could be a laptop, it could be a PC, but That’s the biggest challenge of getting older
there is still a PC or laptop at home and it remains people or non–users to use the internet because
the anchor to the internet. But they don’t understand it until
you have also a set of other de- they experience it and they
vices that extend and comple- PROF. DUTTON: don’t think they need to expe-
ment what you do at home. The internet is an rience it because they don’t
Readers, tablets and so forth al- experience technology. think they need it. It’s a real co-
low you to bring the internet Nobody understands these nundrum of how to get over this
with you and use it seamlessly technologies unless they use experience gap.
elsewhere. them. Non–users don't There are other differences.
Is it just the “born digital” understand it until they Next generation users are
idea? I don’t like the idea of be- experience it and they don't more likely than others to pay
ing “born digital” because I’ve think they need to for services, but not a lot of peo-
been using the internet since experience it because they ple are paying for services. Pay-
1974 and I think today’s kids don't think they need it. It's ing for services is a new trend.
have no idea of the internet’s a real conundrum of how to We asked in our survey “is it ap-
evolution. I was using the inter- get over this experience gap propriate to download music
net before they were a twinkle without paying”. Next genera-
in anybody’s eyes. Clearly it’s tion users are more likely to
not just the younger generation agree. So, next generation users
that is the next generation user. are more likely to pay for serv-
Students and employed are ices but they are also more like-
about equally likely to be next generation users. ly to agree that it’s often appropriate not to pay.
Where you really see a huge drop off the cliff is Next generation users are more experienced in-
with retired or retirement age people. ternet users and they realize that there are some
Why are some students or some employed peo- things you pay for and some things you shouldn’t.
ple not next generation users? One of the most There are some things that makes sense to pay for
significant factors is income. Higher income groups and some are charged too much or it is silly to pay
are much more likely to have multiple devices – for it, like for some types of information.
smartphones, tablets, readers and laptop com- You can also see that next generation users are
puters. They are much more mobile and versa- less concerned about privacy. Even though they
tile. use internet more, they generate more user–gen-
We have a new digital divide. In Poland a lot of erated content than first generation users, they
people do not have a computer or access to the are less concerned about privacy.
internet and they don’t care about it, don’t think It’s again the experience technology – those
it’s of any value. But of course we know that hav- who fear most the internet in terms of privacy or
15

16. surveillance are those who have never used the that access to the internet should be a funda-
internet. People who have experience online re- mental right for all people, but the percentage
alize they can do certain things without high risk. of people who were disagreeing was very small,
But they do not develop a blind trust in the in- less than 5 per cent.
ternet or silly optimism. Next generation users What’s interesting is that, while the new in-
are more likely to share information online in or- ternet countries, such as India, South Africa, Mex-
der to get a service, like use a credit card to get ico, China, have actually smaller proportion of
something from a bookseller online. users, their support of freedom of expression was
They are also more supportive of freedom of higher than in many of the old internet countries,
expression but everyone in Britain is basically sup- Germany, for example. I think that’s positive news
portive of freedom of expression online. Most peo- because that means that the new center of grav-
ple believe that censorship has no place in a free ity of the internet is not going to necessarily re-
society. Only 30–some per cent believe it is not sult in a change that would undermine the free-
true. dom of expression and other values that are im-
I worked with people at INSEAD and Comscore portant to the internet.
on a report for the World Economic Forum. We You also see that China, Brazil, India have a dra-
did an online survey called the Global Values Proj- matically high percentage of people who produce
ect. We surveyed 13 countries (Australia, New content online daily or weekly. Who’s really low?
Zealand, Brazil, Canada, China, The UK, Australia, New Zealand
France, Germany, Italy, India, and even the US and Canada.
Mexico, South Africa, Spain, US PROF. DUTTON: The new internet world users
and UK). What I found is the People who have experience are really actively creating con-
emergence of a new internet online realize they can do tent, they are also actively us-
world with the center of gravi- certain things without high ing the internet daily or week-
ty shifting to Asia and rapidly risk. But they do not ly for communications.
developing countries. develop a blind trust in the Is Poland in the new internet
There is a developing global internet or silly optimism world or the old internet world?
consensus on values and atti- I think you are probably in
tudes but some users in rapidly the old internet world with
developing countries and in Asia most of the rest of Europe.
are even more supportive of You’re more focused on Web
some basic values in the inter- 1.0 applications but I think you
net such as freedom of expres- are moving in the direction of
sion than are people in the old the new internet world, your
internet world. Those new users users are becoming more ac-
in the developing world and in Asia are actually tive. But there is still uncertainty about freedom
more innovative and active than users in the old of expression, whether the internet is the trust-
internet world. Asia has now over 40 per cent of ed media. But it’s clear that Poland is in the top
internet users globally. The US used to be the cen- 10 nations of Europe in terms of access to the
ter of the internet world and it still has high lev- internet.
els of penetration but there are more Chinese on- Digital divides like that in Britain are still an is-
line now than there are Americans on the planet. sue, in fact we are seeing new digital divides like
North America and Europe are declining as a pro- emergence of the next generation user.
portion of internet users relative to the rest of There is healthy scepticism towards the inter-
the world. net in Poland. There is still not a decision made
In every country we surveyed most of the users whether the internet is essential aspect of the in-
supported freedom of expression online. China formation environment in Poland, as opposed to
was maybe the only country where there was a some other countries. There is concern over the
significant proportion of people who disagreed key issues – privacy, trust, freedom of expression.
16

17. It’s very worrisome that you Poland is also different in
have sense of being watched on- PROF. DUTTON: terms of the amount of infor-
line and I think that could be I would put dollars to donuts mation that is available in Pol-
changing globally. If Jeff Cole is that in one or two years ish content is probably signif-
right and “Big Brother is big busi- you'll see rise in next icantly less than in English con-
ness”, this could have a huge generation users in Poland. tent online. And as more and
chilling effect on the future of I can't wait to see what more content is being pro-
the internet. It could be ab- happens in the future of the duced for the internet and dig-
solutely a disaster if people do internet in your country itally through other media, the
not try to protect the internet as internet is going to reach a tip-
a place where you can have se- ping point where it begins to
cure, anonymous, free and open expression and be as essential for everyday information as it is
get access to information you want and need. in other countries.
But I think there is clearly evidence that Poland I would put dollars to donuts that in one or two
is at the tipping point – younger people in Poland years you’ll see rise in next generation users in
are beginning to use the internet in ways that are Poland. I can’t wait to see what happens in the
closer to the next generation user. future of the internet in your country.
EDWT
RN L
On the pages
EDWOR
L TI NT
RO
NTE
ETI JECT
ERNJECTPRO
R
worldinternetproject.net and badania.gazeta.pl
you can find the full reports of the “World Internet Project:
RNE JECTP Poland” from 2010 and 2011 with extensive commentary by
NTE JECTPRO Prof. Jeffrey Cole of USC Annenberg School for Communication
RO
CTP
(2010) and Prof. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute
(2011) and texts by Polish Internet researchers
17

18. DISCUSSION OF POLISH INTERNET
RESEARCHERS
DR. JAN ZAJĄC: with friends. They are also con-
We’ll try to answer the eternal MODERATOR: scious citizens who go online to
question about Internet in DR. gather information about what’s
Poland: what it looks like, where JAN ZAJĄC going on in the world and in
it is going, what are the char- UNIVERSITY OF their immediate environment.
acteristic features of the Polish WARSAW At Centrum Cyfrowe, Mirosław
Internet and Internet users. But Filiciak, Alek Tarkowski and I con-
first I’d like us to talk about duct research on alternative
what Prof. Dutton referred to PARTICIPANTS: forms of exchanging content and
Author: DTKindler, licence: CC BY
at the end of his speech, that is DR. this is where we researched In-
about the issue of next genera- JUSTYNA ternet users. Some of their fea-
tion Internet users. Is such a cat- HOFMOKL tures indicate that a group of
egory significant and is it sig- CENTRUM next generations users is emerg-
nificant for Poland? As many as CYFROWE, ing in Poland. In this group, 39
60 per cent of Poles use the In- PROJEKT POLSKA per cent of the interviewees said
ternet and there is a growing they accessed the Internet using
need to divide them somehow. DR. mobile devices.
Prof. Dutton presented an in- DOMINIK But if we look at the results of
teresting idea. Apart from tra- BATORSKI the survey we are discussing to-
ditional devices, next genera- UNIVERSITY OF day, it’s true that there aren’t
tion users very often access the WARSAW many active users to be seen. We
Internet using different kinds of believe that the Internet makes
mobile devices. They are much people more active, that it sup-
more likely to create their own DR. ports democracy, that it lets peo-
content and post it online. It MAREK ple express themselves, fulfil
seems that many of these dif- TROSZYŃSKI themselves, be creative. Unfor-
ferences can be explained oth- COLLEGIUM tunately, these results do not
erwise, for example by refer- CIVITAS show it. We can worry about
ring to basic demographic dif- that, but we must also remem-
ferences. The new generation ber that we the population of In-
of users are mainly people who DR. ternet users is still not fully de-
are younger, richer, who have MIROSŁAW veloped. The website Nasza–
better Internet skills. Can you FILICIAK Klasa did more for popularising
really see the category of next WARSAW SCHOOL the Internet in Poland than all
generation users in Poland? OF SOCIAL SCIENCES kinds of social campaigns or pro-
AND HUMANITIES grammes of creating Internet ac-
DR. JUSTYNA HOFMOKL: cess points. But Nasza–Klasa is a
I, personally, like this idea very much and I be- rather passive social networking site. People joined
lieve that such a group of people may emerge in it to meet their old friends, but that’s basically it.
Poland. This is an incredibly interesting group of For me it’s just the beginning of a long way.
people, who drive the development of the Inter-
net. They are creative, active, they understand DR. DOMINIK BATORSKI:
this medium, they can use it for different pur- I’m a little more sceptical about next generation
poses, not only to have some fun or get in touch users. Is it something else than just heavy users?
18

19. There are people in Poland for whom the Inter- ty, this is where these people maintain their so-
net is the main medium. According to the World cial relations.
Internet Project, these are more than a dozen per
cent of Poles. DR. JAN ZAJĄC:
When it comes to ways of using the Internet, The question is: what was first? Do these people
what I find most important is not the intensity of have such needs and satisfy them online, or do
use but what people actually do on the Internet. they use the Internet more and more intensively
On the one hand, we have users who use it chiefly and find new ways of using it?
for practical purposes, to develop their interests,
to work or study, while on the other hand there’s DR. MAREK TROSZYŃSKI:
a whole group of people who treat it mainly as a I think that the key factor is the easy access to
source of entertainment. This first group are main- technology, real possibilities that people have,
ly users who are better educated, come from larg- the fact that we can hold a tablet computer in-
er towns, usually a little younger. stead of a sheet of paper, that
The second group are mainly I can use my mobile to update
people who are not so well edu- DR. FILICIAK: my status or take photographs
cated, come from less wealthy We also have to be careful of this conference and show
households. They too can use the not to fetishize the them to all my friends.
Internet very intensively, but Internet, because when
they use it mainly for entertain- we’re talking about using DR. MIROSŁAW FILICIAK:
ment, not to improve their life the Internet to improve the We certainly need to categorise
situation. People who spend quality of life we may be Internet users, because com-
some time online but can’t use referring to a group of paring a person who uses the
the Internet to improve their life people who would raise this Internet once a week to some-
situation are not very much dif- quality using other tools, body who takes their laptop to
ferent from those who have no if there were no Internet the toilet with them doesn’t
Internet access at all. make much sense. We need at-
tractive metaphors. I have no-
DR. MAREK TROSZYŃSKI: ticed that although I have often
I’m convinced that it is necessary to categorise criticised the ‘digital natives’ metaphor, as it is
Internet users. It is getting more and more diffi- misleading – it concentrates on the age, people
cult to say that Internet users think this or that. who were born in the Internet era – I very often
That’s why we need to perceive Internet users as use it myself, as it is very convenient. I think that
a community which is varied inside. I think that the idea of next generation users is similar in this
the key dimension, probably in line with Prof. Dut- respect. This next generation suggests that the
ton’s idea, is using the mobile Internet. What is basic difference is age. Of course it very often is,
the Internet really? Is it a communication medi- but not always.
um or a social space? When we think about peo- In the research conducted at Centrum Cyfrowe,
ple who come to work in the morning, read and which Justyna mentioned earlier, we used an on-
send e–mails, make some personal arrangements line questionnaire and it turned out that all in-
online, and then turn the computer off, we are dexes connected with buying and reading books
talking about a communication medium. But were 100–200 per cent higher than we usually as-
there’s also an increasingly more prominent group sume for the Polish population. But if we look at
of people who transfer at least a part of their so- the distribution across different age groups, it is
cial lives to the Internet, for whom the Internet surprisingly flat. Not only young people are ac-
is a social space, who have a strong need to be tive consumers of online content.
online. “If you’re not on Facebook, you don’t ex- We also have to be careful not to fetishize the
ist” – this saying shows us this line of thinking. Internet, because when we’re talking about us-
The Internet reality is as real as the social reali- ing the Internet to improve the quality of life we
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20. may be referring to a group of people who would side – their education, motivation, needs, cul-
raise this quality using other tools, if there were tural capital.
no Internet.
DR. JAN ZAJĄC:
DR. JAN ZAJĄC: Professor, would you like to add something?
I think that an important thing is also the idea of
‘invisible technology’, that is technology that we PROF. WILLIAM DUTTON:
take for granted, such as electricity. I think that I have heard some very good criticism and some
computers and the Internet have become invisi- support for my theory. I’m glad that it arouses
ble technology only for a small part of the Polish some controversy. Of course I agree that we should
society. It seems to me that most users still be- try to categorise Internet users and we’re trying
long to the group who sometimes log on to the In- to figure out what is the best category. Nobody
ternet, not to the group of people who are online suggested – that’s a positive thing – to divide them
24/7. It is well–known that there into broadband users and not
are fewer mobile technology broadband users. In Britain
users in Poland than in the UK, PROF. DUTTON: everybody uses broadband, so
especially when we’re talking Are next generation users it becomes almost irrelevant.
about smartphones. only heavy users? I don’t Are next generation users on-
A very interesting aspect of think so. We have to get ly heavy users? I don’t think so.
the idea of next generation away from a television We have to get away from a tel-
users is also the large propor- paradigm, which is all about evision paradigm, which is all
tion of people who create their how much time you spend about how much time you spend
own content. The results of all using different devices. using different devices. In the
earlier surveys, not only those The Internet changes the case of the Internet it doesn’t
conducted in Poland, clearly media ecology: the Internet matter how much time you
demonstrated that although the feeds on the press, spend online. You can watch TV
Internet is the technology of telephones, TV, and for X hours a day and not use
freedom, creativity, as Manuel television more and more the Internet even once at that
Castells has been saying for often uses the Internet time, but imagine that you go
more than a decade, only a very somewhere to the end of the
small percentage of users actu- world and you don’t need to
ally create anything, even on Web 2.0 websites. worry about anything because you can always re-
Most of them only watch. The Polish results show ceive an e–mail or a message. I may even not use
us that the percentage of those who create and the Internet, but I know that in case anything hap-
upload their own content in the Internet is still pens I’m in touch.
relatively low. In Britain this percentage is much TV and the Internet don’t compete with each
higher. The unique research conducted by other as much as people would like them to. They
Mirosław Filiciak and Justyna Hofmokl suggested don’t compete because they complement each
that there are such people in Poland. Dominik Ba- other. The Internet changes the media ecology:
torski, referring to nation–wide research, demon- the Internet feeds on the press, telephones, TV,
strates that they are a marginal group. and television more and more often uses the In-
ternet. We knew what happened to Gaddafi, what
DR. DOMINIK BATORSKI: was happening during the Arab spring thanks to
It’s true that there’s a number of such people in accounts and films which were posted online.
Poland, but it doesn’t really show that using the
Internet makes them much more active and ready DR. JAN ZAJĄC:
to generate much more content. What Mirosław We have heard much about the influence of the
said is very important here: it’s not the technol- Internet on participation in culture, not only with
ogy that changes a lot, it’s what people have in- regard to creating own content, but also with ref-
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21. erence to participating in culture outside the In- the past, about contact with such activities or
ternet world, when the Internet is the source of about indirect contact, that is using content down-
information about concerts, events, new books, loaded by other household members, it turns out
music albums, or when the Internet becomes a that these percentages reach, or even exceed,
place where these goods can be accessed, also il- 50 per cent. Interestingly, just like Prof. Dutton
legally. We have also heard that users have new said, next generation users are a little more like-
creative possibilities but not all of them use them. ly to pay than first generation users, but at the
What does it look like in light of research con- same time the increase in the reluctance to pay
ducted in Poland? is even higher.
This is a large group, around a half of the Pol-
DR. MIROSŁAW FILICIAK: ish Internet users. If we compare them with those
The reason for conducting our research was a dis- Poles who are generally interested in the active
appointment. A few years ago all of us expected use of cultural content, that is buying books, films
that the levels of Internet users’ creativity would etc., it turns out – I admit it was a bit shocking
grow. We know that this is still for us – that the informal sphere
a marginal group, although our of culture circulation is similar,
definition of creativity in the In- DR. BATORSKI: or maybe even a little larger,
ternet has become so wide that Users must have a whole than the formal one.
it’s almost enough to post an spectrum of choices how
emoticon on somebody’s blog, they want to consume given DR. JUSTYNA HOFMOKL:
and still it turns out that not information, how they want I would like to add that these
everybody is doing that, not to listen to music, when people not only exchange cul-
everybody is posting comments. they want to watch films. tural content, including Ameri-
That’s why we decided to ex- it’s the same people who can TV series obtained in an il-
amine not how Internet users download most content legal way, informally, but also
generate content, but how they from the Internet and at the spend money on legal CDs, go
comment it, particularly how same time most often go to to concerts, buy books. What’s
they redistribute content cre- the cinema, most often pay more, they use such tradition-
ated by others, often using pira- for this content. These are al forms of cultural exchange as
cy practices. people who have the libraries. It seems to me that
Two years ago we conducted greatest demand but at the this is the Polish group of next
a survey with the research de- same time they want generation users.
partment of Gazeta.pl, called to consume this content in I only ask myself if it is them
“TV without TV sets”, which a way that’s convenient we should focus on. They are
told us that there’s a huge group for them those who are already “inside”.
of people in Poland who regu- A whole different question is
larly watch American TV series what to do with this huge group
which can’t be watched legally in Poland. They of people who are not interested in the Internet
just download them from the Internet. We want- and, as we can see, are not willing to change their
ed to have a look at this informal flow and map mind. I believe this question is more important
this informal media economy. than the issue of next generation users.
The results of our research surprisingly coinci-
dent with what we have seen here and are simi- DR. JAN ZAJĄC:
lar to the results of the Social Diagnosis survey. For many people this is a shocking discovery: they
You could say that about one in four, one in five can’t believe that people sit in front of the In-
or one in six Internet users – depending on the ternet, watch films, listen to MP3 music, and then
content type – download “free”, to call it mildly, go to concerts, theatre, cinema – offline. Profes-
content on a regular basis. But when we ask about sor, have you seen similar results in other coun-
having downloaded such content at any time in tries?
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