The study explores the cultural bases of web2.0 use in European countries and discovers common profiles and differences between European countries.

1. F. Thomas, FTR Rosny-sous-Bois, France
N. Vittadini, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy
P. Gómez-Fernández, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
The Good, the Bad and the Challenging
COST 298 Conference
13 to 15 May 2009 Copenhagen

2.  Diffusion and socio/cultural relevance of Broadband technology
depends not only on access, but also on services uptake and use.
 Services uptake is affected by differences in groups of people and levels
of acceptance and use of a new technology.
 Besides basic socio-economic and socio-demographic influences
services uptake (use and incorporation in everyday life) is affected by
cultural variables and needs a cultural approach integrating the
appropriation of technologies into domestic cultures and their
incorporation in accordance with social values and behaviour.

3.  “It's not about the technology or the artefact, but about the culture in
which those technologies and artefacts are embeddedquot; (Boyd, 2007 )
 Diffusion and socio/cultural relevance of Broadband technology
depends not only on access, but also on services uptake and use.
 Services uptake is affected by differences in groups of people and levels
of acceptance and use of a new technology.
 Besides basic socio-economic and socio-demographic influences
services uptake (use and incorporation in everyday life) is affected by
cultural variables and needs a cultural approach integrating the
appropriation of technologies into domestic cultures and their
incorporation in accordance with social values and behaviour.

4.  An operational definition of culture
 commonly shared symbols; values; beliefs; attitudes and their translation into
everyday social perceptions
 A set of influences already identified by previous
studies:
 Consumers’ perception of broadband technology
 HOFSTEDE: Power Distance;
 HOFSTEDE: Collectivism versus Individualism;
 HOFSTEDE: Uncertainty Avoidance;
 HOFSTEDE: Short-term vs long-term orientation;
 INGLEHART: Postmaterialism;
 Social capital ;
 Interpersonal trust; Trust on the net.

5. Among broadband services significant to evidence new
user’s behaviour and cultural differences are web 2.0
services.
This kind of services :
 Can be assumed as indicators of an Information Society as
they require more skills on the user’s part (markers of
increasing digital literacy).
 For the level of creative participation of the citizens they
can be a promise of an expanding field of creative
opportunity.
 Are adopted according to the “moral economy of the
households”.

6. Creative internet all creative uses of the net
ranging from relatively straightforward user-
generated content
such as sharing photographs, to the
distribution of more complex amateur-
produced material
Social Com puting all social uses of the net including
collaboration, sharing, communication
such as blogging, podcasting, uses of W iki
applications, social networking, multimedia
sharing, social tagging and social gaming
Circular entertainm ent all applications that permits users to
consume entertainment products through
different devices, through peer to peer
sharing or personal downloading and
streaming

7. The comparative analysis of web2.0
services in Europe & its data sources
Sources Sampling Plus Cons Web2.0
European Social Survey ++ social capital few ICT —
social values
Eurobarometer + recent EU citizens only +
Flash Eurobarometer repetitive question development
trend questions pop. Aged 15 to 74 yrs.
ICT embargo questions
Eurostat ICT household survey + recent aggregate data only +
ICT covered
ITU + aggregate data only +
Hofstede IBM value questions no clear theoretical basis —
managers few countries
The consequence : incoherent country & item coverage,
web2.0 undercovered & no household-level data

9. Social values and attitudes Cultural activities and consumption
 Postmaterialism  Visual and manual artistic activities
 Free opinion as a global value  Traditional artistic activities
 Tolerance as a global value  Frequency of Cultural consumption
 Non-users perceived as old fashioned  Width of Cultural consumption
 Interpersonal trust
 Power distance Social behaviour
 Uncertainty avoidance
• % Volunteering
 Local attachment
• Relative importance of family in
comparison to friends
Socio-demographic influences • Friends from abroad, in Europe
• % Internet users in 2000 • Friends from outside Europe
• Price of Internet
• Length of residence
• Hrs. worked per week
• Household size

10. Conclusions
 Circular entertainment, the most similar to
traditional media consumption, is widely
adopted in all of the countries studied.
 Participation through content production, i.e.
creative internet, is more diffused in culturally
active countries.
 Participation through social networks, i.e.
social computing, is more diffused in non-
social active countries.

11. Countries can be profiled through 3 dimensions

Social capital and cultural activities (53% of
variance)

Technology and sociability (13% of variance)

Egalitarian values and active culture (8% of
variance)
•
No longer considered here for clarity of the presentation
•
HOFSTEDE variables form part of this weak influence

12. Countries can be profiled by (1)

Participation and cultural activities
+ cultural activities & consumption
+ social values: postmaterialism
+ social bridging capital: volunteering, friends abroad,
friends more important than family, interpersonal trust
- size of household, length of residence

13. Countries can be profiled by (2)

Technology and sociability
- price of the Internet
+ long-term Internet penetration of country
- length of residence
+ friends from outside Europe
- non-users perceived as old-fashioned
+/- signs show direction of major influences (above |.8|), smaller influences not shown

14. The profiles of the country types
Top cultural Cultural & Social actives Analogue Analogue
& social social & cultural cultural cultural
actives actives consumers consumers actives
Cultural consumption + + - -
& activities
Postmaterialism ++ + - - -
Volunteering ++ + - -
Interpersonal trust ++ - - -
Friends abroad + + - --
Family more valued -- - + + ++
than friends
Length of residence - - + ++
Size of household +
Technology maturity* + + - --
* Internet price in 2007 & Internet diffusion in 2000

15. 2
Cultural & social
1,5 NL
actives
UK
1 BE ES Social actives &
cultural
Technology & s ociability
IE SE DK
0,5 PT DE FI consumers
IT
AT Analog cultural
0
actives
GR
-0,5 FR
Analog cultural
-1 PL consumers
HU Top Cultural &
-1,5 social actives
-2
CZ
-2,5
-3
-2 -1,5 -1 -0,5 0 0,5 1 1,5
Participation & culture

16. social
top cultural cultural and analogue analogue actives and
and social social cultural cultural cultural
In % of resp. active actives, actives consumer consumers
Play games, downloading
46 45 59 62 49
music, etc.
Maintain profile on social
36 36 37 36 33
networking sites
Upload photos, videos to
40 36 49 49 42
public website
Transfer content from
42 38 41 49 46
Internet to private devices
Source: Flash Eurob arometer 241, 2008
 There is a general European model, a common minimum level of web2.0 usages, in all of
the 17 European countries studied.
 Web2.0 services are widely used in low-diffusion countries because of their majority of
young users.
 Transferring content to/from devices is highest in analogue cultural consumer countries.
 Publication of visual content is most active in transformation countries.

17. Starting from cultural influences we can describe three models of adoption:
 Flat model of the complete offer of web 2.0 services aimed to sustain both social
and cultural activities already characterizing the countries. This model can be seen
both in “top cultural and social performers” and in “cultural and social performers”
which shows a homogeneous adoption pattern including both creative Internet and
social computing activities.
 Cultural goods oriented model defined by a clear privilege for circular entertainment
practices aimed to increasing through web 2.0 services the number and the
differentiation of cultural products that users can consume and the way they
consume then (through mobile devices for example) while social activities seems to
be left to real life. This model can be seen both in “social active and cultural
consumers” and in “analogue cultural consumers”.
 Cultural performance oriented model defined by a centrality of cultural activity
(creative internet for example) through web 2.0 services and to achieve a more
active social life for “analogue cultural active” countries.

18. Conclusions
 Circular entertainment, the most similar to
traditional media consumption, is widely
adopted in all of the countries studied.
 Participation through content production, i.e.
creative internet, is more diffused in culturally
active countries.
 Participation through social networks, i.e.
social computing, is more diffused in non-
social active countries.

19. United in diversity ?
• There are common traits in web2.0 usage in
all of the 17 countries studied.
• At the same time there are several clearly
distinguishable country types that influence
the path to a broadband society.

20. How to contact the authors by email:

frank.thomasftr@free.fr

nicoletta.vittadini@unicatt.it

gomezfer@ccinf.ucm.es
Download of the full text :
http://miha2.ef.uni-lj.si/cost298/gbc2009-proceedings/papers/P123.pdf