The interplay of public and private spaces in internet access

Abstract

The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adopted by governments in addressing ‘digital divide’ issues. The lack of plans for ongoing funding, in North America at least, suggests that this mode is regarded mainly as transitional, with private, home-based access being perceived as superior. The assumption apparently is that as domestic internet penetration rates rise, public access facilities will no longer be needed. Central to this issue are the varied characteristics of publicly provided and privately owned access sites and their implications for non-employment internet activities. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two access modes? More fundamentally, how do people conceptualize public and private spaces and how does this perception influence their online activities? Finally, why do people choose one over the other, and how do they navigate between the two? This article attempts to answer these questions by drawing on data generated within the Everyday Internet Project, a ‘neighborhood ethnography’ of internet usage. It argues that the conventional view of private and public access facilities as immiscible, fixed alternatives is inadequate. Rather than ‘pure’ types, they are better understood as offering hybrid spaces whose identity and character are fluid, perceived differently by individuals in light of the activities being performed, life experiences, infrastructure and architecture. The picture emerging from our study is one where public and private access modes intertwine with each other in a variety of ways, their combination offering significant additional value for many users. From a public policy perspective, these findings suggest that if universal access is to be achieved, there is a continuing need for publicly supported broad-spectrum facilities with integrated technical support and learning opportunities, even if domestic penetration rates approach that of the telephone.

Keywords:

• Internet access and use
• digital divides
• spatial hybridity
• internet policy
• neighborhood ethnography

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the willingness of their informants to let them into their homes and lives and answer their many questions. Randall Terada of St Christopher House helped the authors greatly in recruiting many of their informants. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) provided research funding.

Notes

1. http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/everydayinternet/

2. The value our research participants find in internet use is discussed in Kennedy et al. (2004).

3. Also of interest is the ‘Connecting Canadians’ program website: http://cap.ic.gc.ca/english/5000.shtml

4. See http://broadband.gc.ca/pub/program/NBTF/broadband.pdf

5. There is an obvious third category: the workplace. Although it features prominently in the media it is not really present in policy discussions, so we choose to omit it here. Moreover, we acknowledge that there are initiatives in place that provide a ‘public’ (that is, offered by a governmental entity) terminal to a person's home. Although not privately owned, such access is effectively private in practice.

6. For more information on the research design and field methodology, see Viseu et al. (2004) and Clement et al. (2004).

7. We did not specifically ask participants about income and thus cannot present figures. However, it is clear from talking to participants and, in certain cases, from taking note of their houses that most participants come from middle- and low-income strata, which is consistent with the neighborhood studied.

8. The presence of a fluent speaker of Portuguese and Spanish (Viseu) on the research team allowed us to better accommodate the linguistic needs of participants.

9. See http://www.stchrishouse.org/cln/

10. Interestingly, our two other Brazilian participants express the opposite opinion. They describe two internets, one Canadian and one Brazilian. According to them, the Canadian internet offers the possibility of doing a variety of things that would be unthinkable in Brazil. This view, whether valid or not, again points to the importance of place and cultural practices in the understanding of online privacy. (For more, see Viseu et al., 2004.)

11. For more on the ways in which people actively counter the merging of spaces, see Clement & Wagner (1995).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana Viseu

Ana Viseu is a Research Associate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, where she investigates the social, cultural and ethical dimensions of nanotechnoscience. She specializes in science and technology studies, studies of ICTs and innovation, and ethnographic investigations of the practices of technological development and use. Her research interests focus on questions of technological agency, embodiment and identity and the ways in which these notions are constructed and transformed through and within emergent information technologies.

Andrew Clement

Andrew Clement is a Professor in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, where he coordinates the Information Policy Research Program and is the Director of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Knowledge Media Design. He has had longstanding research and teaching interests in the social implications of information/communication technology and human-centered systems development. His recent research has focused on public information policy, internet use in everyday life, digital identity constructions, public participation in information/communication infrastructures development, and community networking.

Jane Aspinall

Jane Aspinal is a Master's student at the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto.

Tracy L. M. Kennedy

Tracy L. M. Kennedy is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, Canada. Working with Prof. Barry Wellman, her dissertation research – ‘Domesticating the Internet’ – uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the prevalence of the internet in Canadian homes, and investigates the implications of the household internet on social interactions and relationships between family members. Tracy has attended the Summer Doctoral Program at the Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Maryland's annual WebShop. She is also a lecturer at Brock University and the University of Toronto on the subjects of media, culture, technology, education and gender.