GIS and Geodemographics: A National Classification of ICT Usages

GISRUK04, Norwich, UK
April, 2004

Chao Li, Marc Farr, Paul Longley, Richard Webber

Introduction

Within a population increasingly on-line, current geodemographic classifications no longer adequately reflect this aspect of society. Most people in the UK, for example, now have access to some digital technology, whether through devices that they own or simply through usage in public places (Batty and Miller 2000). The key distinction of the 1990s through which society was classified into the digital 'haves' and 'have-nots' is radically changing (Samuelson 2002). In these changed circumstances, variation in awareness and usage is no longer best represented as the crisp and well-defined 'digital divides' that were posited a decade ago. Today's key issues, in developed countries at least, concern emergent patterns of digital differentiation within the population (Baker 2001). Such differentiation is becoming manifest in terms of access to different types of goods and services, in the speed and convenience of access, and the availability of new technologies in public and private domains. High-speed networks, new hand-held and desktop devices, interface and system design and Internet service providers are having important impacts upon productivity, work and social interaction (Longley et al 2001: 174-180).

There is increasing differentiation of ICT usage between different user groups. This gives rise to a general need, in social science and in government, for a review of the dimensions that are presently used to generalise about attitudes to consumption, information provision and citizen participation (Brown 1998). New discriminators are required to develop more perceptive groupings.

In this paper, we present our approach to establishing a classification of individuals and households according to their present profile of usage of ICTs for information access, transactions concerning private goods/services and participation.

References

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