the pod bay door

:: The USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has completed a study of the impact of online technology (note – 105p pdf document), specifically how the Internet affects America. I don’t know of an equivalent study underway in Canada. From the press release, among the findings from Year Four of the Digital Future
Project:

-Internet access has risen to its highest level ever. About three-quarters of Americans now go online.
– The number of hours spent online continues to increase, rising to an average of 12.5 hours per week – the highest level in the study thus far.
– Although the Internet has become the most important source of current information for users, the initially high level of credibility of information on the Internet began to drop in the third year of the study, and declined even further in Year Four.
– The number of users who believe that only about half of the information on the Internet is accurate and reliable is growing and has now passed 40 percent of users for the first time.
– The study showed that most users trust information on the websites they visit regularly, and on pages created by established media and the government.
– Information pages posted by individuals have the lowest credibility: only 9.5 percent of users say information on those sites is reliable and accurate.
– Television viewing continues to decline among Internet users, raising the question: “What will happen as a nation that once spent an extremely large portion of time in a passive activity (watching television) transfers increasingly large portions of that time to an interactive activity (the Internet)?”

Here are the top ten trends identified by the Center:

1. In America, The Digital Divide Is Closing, But Is Not Yet Closed As New Divides Emerge
2. The Media Habits Of The Nation Have Changed, And Continue To Change
3. The Credibility Of The Internet Is Dropping
4. We Have Just Begun to See the Changes to Come in Buying Online
5. The “Geek-Nerd” Perception Of The Internet Is Dead
6. Privacy And Security: Concerns Remain, But The High Levels Are Changing
7. The Internet Has Become The Number One Source For Information For Internet Users
8. The Benefits – and Drawbacks – Of The Internet For Children Are Still Coming Into Focus
9. E-mail: “E-Nuff” Already?
10. Broadband Will Change Everything – Again

:: I’m in Winnipeg. My cousin Barbara’s wedding is tomorrow (Oct 9th, not the 7th). Tonight is a dinner at Tony and Claire‘s house, a veritable feast of Dutch-Indonesian culinary delights, including Nasi Goreng and rijstaffel. Claire notes here that she is cooking for 17 (or 18), and the ensemble tonight includes a number of her friend as well. The edible hedgehog is a durian, resembling some kind of mutated pineapple thingee.

I’ve been sleeping and/or napping a lot here. Probably my body trying to catch up on days weeks months years of lost sleep. I took my folks to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Michael Moore has two new books out, one being The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader, the other being a collection of letters sent to him from soldiers, entitled Will They Ever Trust Us Again?. The latter has received mostly positive reviews on the Amazon site, but the most telling has to be the one written by Andrew Balthazor, an Iraqi war vet, whose writing appears in the book.

:: Speaking of Amazon, I ordered four items today: this, this, this and this. Speaking of this, there is a good interview with and write-up on Paul Westerberg on the CNN site. And another 70s band is reuniting. When the hell is Wang Chung getting back together, dammit!

There seems to be a pop culture explosion of late, of stuff that I’d like to have. I need another nap.