Bruce, H.: ¬The user's view of the Internet (2002)
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- Footnote
- Rez. in: JASIST. 54(2003) no.9, S.906-908 (E.G. Ackermann): "In this book Harry Bruce provides a construct or view of "how and why people are using the Internet," which can be used "to inform the design of new services and to augment our usings of the Internet" (pp. viii-ix; see also pp. 183-184). In the process, he develops an analytical tool that I term the Metatheory of Circulating Usings, and proves an impressive distillation of a vast quantity of research data from previous studies. The book's perspective is explicitly user-centered, as is its theoretical bent. The book is organized into a preface, acknowledgments, and five chapters (Chapter 1, "The Internet Story;" Chapter 2, "Technology and People;" Chapter 3, "A Focus an Usings;" Chapter 4, "Users of the Internet;" Chapter 5, "The User's View of the Internet"), followed by an extensive bibliography and short index. Any notes are found at the end of the relevant Chapter. The book is illustrated with figures and tables, which are clearly presented and labeled. The text is clearly written in a conversational style, relatively jargon-free, and contains no quantification. The intellectual structure follows that of the book for the most part, with some exceptions. The definition of several key concepts or terms are scattered throughout the book, often appearing much later after extensive earlier use. For example, "stakeholders" used repeatedly from p. viii onward, remains undefined until late in the book (pp. 175-176). The study's method is presented in Chapter 3 (p. 34), relatively late in the book. Its metatheoretical basis is developed in two widely separated places (Chapter 3, pp. 56-61, and Chapter 5, pp. 157-159) for no apparent reason. The goal or purpose of presenting the data in Chapter 4 is explained after its presentation (p. 129) rather than earlier with the limits of the data (p. 69). Although none of these problems are crippling to the book, it does introduce an element of unevenness into the flow of the narrative that can confuse the reader and unnecessarily obscures the author's intent. Bruce provides the contextual Background of the book in Chapter 1 (The Internet Story) in the form of a brief history of the Internet followed by a brief delineation of the early popular views of the Internet as an information superstructure. His recapitulation of the origins and development of the Internet from its origins as ARPANET in 1957 to 1995 touches an the highlights of this familiar story that will not be retold here. The early popular views or characterizations of the Internet as an "information society" or "information superhighway" revolved primarily around its function as an information infrastructure (p. 13). These views shared three main components (technology, political values, and implied information values) as well as a set of common assumptions. The technology aspect focused an the Internet as a "common ground an which digital information products and services achieve interoperability" (p. 14). The political values provided a "vision of universal access to distributed information resources and the benefits that this will bring to the lives of individual people and to society in general" (p. 14). The implied communication and information values portrayed the Internet as a "medium for human creativity and innovation" (p. 14). These popular views also assumed that "good decisions arise from good information," that "good democracy is based an making information available to all sectors of society," and that "wisdom is the by-product of effective use of information" (p. 15). Therefore, because the Internet is an information infrastructure, it must be "good and using the Internet will benefit individuals and society in general" (p. 15).
Chapter 2 (Technology and People) focuses an several theories of technological acceptance and diffusion. Unfortunately, Bruce's presentation is somewhat confusing as he moves from one theory to next, never quite connecting them into a logical sequence or coherent whole. Two theories are of particular interest to Bruce: the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The Theory of Diffusion of Innovations is an "information-centric view of technology acceptance" in which technology adopters are placed in the information flows of society from which they learn about innovations and "drive innovation adoption decisions" (p. 20). The Theory of Planned Behavior maintains that the "performance of a behavior is a joint function of intentions and perceived behavioral control" (i.e., how muck control a person thinks they have) (pp. 22-23). Bruce combines these two theories to form the basis for the Technology Acceptance Model. This model posits that "an individual's acceptance of information technology is based an beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors" (p. 24). In all these theories and models echoes a recurring theme: "individual perceptions of the innovation or technology are critical" in terms of both its characteristics and its use (pp. 24-25). From these, in turn, Bruce derives a predictive theory of the role personal perceptions play in technology adoption: Personal Innovativeness of Information Technology Adoption (PIITA). Personal inventiveness is defined as "the willingness of an individual to try out any new information technology" (p. 26). In general, the PIITA theory predicts that information technology will be adopted by individuals that have a greater exposure to mass media, rely less an the evaluation of information technology by others, exhibit a greater ability to cope with uncertainty and take risks, and requires a less positive perception of an information technology prior to its adoption. Chapter 3 (A Focus an Usings) introduces the User-Centered Paradigm (UCP). The UCP is characteristic of the shift of emphasis from technology to users as the driving force behind technology and research agendas for Internet development [for a dissenting view, see Andrew Dillion's (2003) challenge to the utility of user-centerness for design guidance]. It entails the "broad acceptance of the user-oriented perspective across a range of disciplines and professional fields," such as business, education, cognitive engineering, and information science (p. 34).
This book suffers from two major shortcomings: the failure to explain how the metatheory is actually used to analyze extant research data, and the failure to explicitly link the data presented to the conclusions drawn. The analytical function of Bruce's metatheory is clearly stated, but no explicit explanation or example is given to show how he actually accomplished this analysis. Granted, it is impractical given the volume of research data involved, to show how every bit of the data in Chapter 4 was derived. However, several examples of how the metatheory was applied would have been useful in understanding its actual function in the study at hand as well as its potential utility any future studies. More serious is the lack of explicit linkage between the data summary presented in Chapter 4 and the conclusions given in Chapter 5. Each chapter is presented as stand-alone entities containing no citations or internal referencing to connect the data with the conclusions. This leaves the readers with no ready means to evaluate the concluding construct of the user's view of the Internet in light of the data from which it was ostensibly derived. The readers must either go back and laboriously construct the connections themselves, or just take the author's word for it. Because the goal of the book is to create a convincing construct of the user's view of the Internet for others to understand, follow, apply, and improve upon in the "next generation of Internet development," the burden of proof is an the author, not the readers (pp. ix, 183). This oversight may not be so crucial if the author were presenting an exploratory essay designed primarily to stimulate thought and expand our perceptions. However, given that the book is intended as a scholarly work (otherwise why the tremendous effort in analyzing and summarizing vast quantities of research data in Chapter 4?), the lack of explicit linkage between the data and the conclusion is not only puzzling, but simply unacceptable. In summary then, the book is strong in its theoretical and metatheoretical development, presentation of the research data and scope of the literature review, and clarity of the concluding construct of the user's view of the Internet. If these items are of particular interest to the you, then this book may be worth your while. Otherwise, the failure of the book to provide an explanation of how the Metatheory of Circulating Usings is applied in analyzing extant research data, coupled with book's failure to link explicitly the data presented with the conclusions severely undermines this reviewer's confidence in the author's conclusions."
