OII Webcasts

Caroline Haythornthwaite (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois) is interviewed by Christian Sandvig about her paper 'Social Networks and Internet Connectivity Effects' which appears in the iCS Journal.

Sonia Livingstone (LSE Professor of Social Psychology) discusses some of the key issues identified through survey research on the use of the Internet by children. Interviews with children and parents provide high quality data to address major controversies surrounding the opportunities and risks of Internet use by children. Discussion directed by issues arising from her paper published in the iCS Journal.

Professor Frank Webster, a leading scholar in debates about the Information Age, provides a polemical commentary about the respective merits and limitations of sociological analysis and cultural studies as a way of understanding socio-technical change. Discussion directed by issues arising from his paper published in the iCS Journal.

Bill Dutton, Director of the OII, summarizes and discusses his article 'Trust in the Internet as an experience technology' which appears in the iCS Journal. The paper explores and refines key social determinants of cybertrust, based on an analysis of data from an OII Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) conducted using a multi-stage, national probability sample in Great Britain.

Philip Howard (Assistant Professor, Communication Department, University of Washington) provides a commentary to his article published in Information, Communication & Society where he examines the leap-frog hypothesis of developing countries becoming information societies. He contends that there is little evidence to support this view and that policies such as privatization, regulatory separation or market liberalization have been less important for the few successes than economic prosperity.

Eleanor Burt and John Taylor summarize and discusses their article 'How well do voluntary organizations perform on the web as democratic actors?' which appears in the iCS Journal. The article develops and sets out an analytical framework through which an evaluation can begin of whether and how voluntary organizations are using the Web to support and enhance their engagement along these three democratic dimensions.