Oxford Internet Survey 2005 Report: The Internet in Britain

Abstract

Launched by the Oxford Internet Institute in 2003, OxIS has become an authoritative source of information about Internet access, use and attitudes - and the difference this makes for everyday life - in Britain. Areas covered include: digital and social inclusion and exclusion; regulation and governance of the Internet; privacy, trust and risk concerns; and uses of the Internet, including social networking, entertainment and online education. The OxIS 2005 survey is the second in a series, with a previous surveys conducted in 2003. Each has used a multi-stage national probability sample of 2000 people in the UK, enabling us to project estimates to Britain as a whole. OxIS provides the UK's link to the World Internet Project (WIP), an international collaborative project that joins over two dozen nations in studies of the social, economic and political implications of the Internet. The first part of this report focuses on describing users, ex-users and non-users, based on such attributes as their demographic characteristics, uses of, and attitudes towards, ICTs. The second part focuses on describing how people with different backgrounds use and think about the Internet. A description of the methodology is available at the end of this report, and the full protocol for the interviews is available on the OxIS website.