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MEASURING THE INTERNET – AUGUST 2001. Staff researcher, Peter Evans, reviews a report on Internet indicators prepared by Michael Minges of the ITU. The modern phenomenon of the Internet has created enormous interest and discussion as it proceeds to take the world by storm. Yet, it has been difficult to measure and define exactly what has been going on. And, despite recent improvements in the quality and quantity of the information available, there are still wide variations in definitions, comparability and scope. The vexed question of how we can best measure the Internet has been addressed in a compelling paper by Michael Minges, an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) expert. The paper has not been published with any official ITU imprimatur. Nonetheless, it undoubtedly reflects the useful experience of an expert working closely with that influential organisation. In his paper Minges notes a particular characteristic of the information for anyone attempting to look globally at Internet – whilst the information compiled for developed countries is increasingly comprehensive, the same cannot be said for developing countries. Clearly there is a need to develop standard indicators and definitions to measure Internet access across countries. The Minges document outlines the indicators that are presently being used, as well as their limitations, and proposes a set of integrated Internet access indicators. The paper can be found at http://www.isoc.org/inet2000/cdproceedings/8e/8e_1.htm and for anyone interested in studying the development of Internet it is well worth reading. It is strongly supported with tables and references. In the meantime, a few of his thoughts on three of the more commonly used indicators – host computers, subscribers and users – have been edited and appear below. 1. Host computers One of the indicators most commonly used to compare Internet development between countries is the number of host computers. Networks Wizards, who conduct the best known global survey of Internet hosts for the Internet Software Consortium, use the following definition of hosts: A host is a domain name that has an IP address record associated with it. This would be any computer system connected to the Internet (via ful-l or part-time, direct or dialup connections). ie. nw.com, www.nw.com. While hosts might be a useful infrastructure indicator, counting the number of computers in a nation that are connected to the Internet, it is a poor indicator of accessibility, since it does not measure the number of users. Furthermore, the

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definition of a host is vague. What exactly are they? It is easy to conceptualise a Web server that provides access to the Internet or disseminates information or is used as a conduit to sell products and services. Yet hosts also include name servers, mail servers, file servers and other automated devices. The measurement of host data is also subject to criticism. For example, a single computer may host several domain names and a single domain name might be hosted by a group of computers. Also, the physical connection to a host may not be operational when the survey is carried out. As a result, the data have been prone to major revisions and there are often anomalies between surveys. 2. Users The number of users is a basic and seemingly comprehensible measure of Internet access. However, comparisons of user data are misleading because there is no standard definition of frequency (eg daily, weekly, monthly) or services used (eg e-mail, World Wide Web). Although there are several well-known sources of Internet users for different countries they are often collected from various national surveys that are not comparable and typically ignore developing countries completely. The commercialisation of the Internet and increasing interest in electronic commerce has resulted in a growing number of market researchers collecting national user statistics. These are typically based on sample surveys projected for the population as a whole. Plans by experienced market research firms to conduct Internet surveys in a number of countries could enhance availability and comparability. One danger is that, since these surveys would be carried out by private firms, much of the data will remain restricted to clients or be prohibitively expensive for widespread analysis. Growing involvement of national statistical agencies in compiling Internet user data will help to make such data more widely available to the public. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics compiles estimates on the number of Internet users for Australia, based on household surveys. 3. Subscribers The number of Internet subscribers – those paying for access to the Internet – is a more precise indicator of access than users. Subscription suggests a certain intensity of use since it is unlikely one would be paying for Internet access unless it is being utilised regularly. It should, of course, be noted that the number of subscribers measures those who are actually paying for a subscription and not the number of users. Many users obtain free access, either as the member of a household or from work or school. On the other hand, the number of subscribers is useful for estimating the number of users when user data is unavailable. The number of subscribers thus sets a minimum threshold for the number of users in a country. Data about the nature of the subscription – such as paid or free, business or consumer – and the access method (dial-up, leased line, cable modem, or broadband telephone line (ISDN, xDSL)) is also useful. Many Internet service providers report their subscriber counts. Naturally, in countries where ISP service is not a monopoly, individual ISP data needs to be aggregated to obtain a national total. If not all ISPs report, country-level data may be hard to obtain. Some ISPs report their market share which allows a country-level statistic to be derived. Tweet This Post Tagged in: Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific, Global This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2001 at 10:00 am and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.