Public Access, Private Mobile
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Public access, private mobile The interplay of shared access and the mobile Internet for teenagers in Cape Town Marion Walton, University of Cape Town Jonathan Donner, Microsoft Research India GLOBAL IMPACT STUDY RESEARCH REPORT SERIES October 2012 THE GLOBAL IMPACT STUDY ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABSTRACT This research was conducted as part of Marion Walton is a senior lecturer in the The study assesses and describes the interplay the Global Impact Study of Public Access Centre for Film and Media Studies at the between public PC-based Internet access and to Information & Communication University of Cape Town, South Africa. private mobile-based access for urban teenaged Technologies, a five-year (2007-2012) public access venue (PAV) users in Cape project to generate evidence about the Jonathan Donner is a researcher in the Town. South Africa is a particularly fruitful scale, character, and impacts of public Technology for Emerging Markets and “leading edge” environment to do this work access to information and communication Mobile, Networks, and Systems areas at since not only mobile use, but specifically technologies. Looking at libraries, Microsoft Research India. Jonathan is also a mobile Internet use, is increasingly common telecenters, and cybercafés, the study visiting academic at the Hasso Plattner even among resource-constrained young investigates impact in a number of areas, Institute for ICT4D Research at the people. We combine quantitative surveys with including communication and leisure, University of Cape Town. open-ended interviews of users and PAV culture and language, education, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS operators. Discussion is structured around five employment and income, governance, claims: 1) Public access and private mobiles and health. The Global Impact Study is We gratefully acknowledge the offer different affordances, and teenage users implemented by the Technology & Social contributions of the following people to the have developed complex, fine-grained practices Change Group at the University of research: Silke Hassreiter ably administered which help them to negotiate the respective Washington Information School with fieldwork; Anja Venter, Minah Radebe, strengths and weaknesses of the affordances. 2) support from Canada's International Muya Koloko, and Nombuyiselo Dziba The PAV provides non-substitutable impact to Development Research Centre (IDRC) and conducted fieldwork and provided some resource-constrained users, even those with a grant to IDRC from the Bill & Melinda translations; and Juliette Manitshana, “the Internet in their pocket.” 3) Public access Gates Foundation. Learn more at Baxolele Zono, and Thabisa Xhalisa assisted supports the development of digital literacies globalimpactstudy.org. with transcriptions and translations. We associated with hyperlinked media and large- also greatly appreciate the contributions of format documents, while mobile access Amaal Davids. Ed Cutrell at the Technology supports everyday social literacies and UCT for Emerging Markets Group at MSR India messaging. 4) Teens can use a combination of UCT aspires to become a premier Library and Information Services, the City of mobile and public access Internet resources to academic meeting point between South Cape Town, Cape Access (Provincial participate in networked media production and Africa, the rest of Africa, and the world. Government of the Western Cape), African grassroots economic mobilization. 5) PAV Taking advantage of expanding global Axess and Silulo Internet Cafés, and of operators can improve venue rules and skills to networks and our distinct vantage point course, the respondents and participants, encourage the complementary use of the in Africa, we are committed, through without whom the research would not be mobile Internet. innovative research and scholarship, to possible. 130-CHARACTER SUMMARY grapple with the key issues of our natural COPYRIGHT, LICENCING, DISCLAIMER and social worlds. We aim to produce For resource-constrained teens in Cape Town, graduates whose qualifications are ©2012 University of Cape Town. All rights the mobile Internet complements, rather than internationally recognized and locally reserved. This content is distributed under replaces, shared access to PCs. applicable, underpinned by values of an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike engaged citizenship and social justice. license. The views, opinions, and findings KEYWORDS UCT will promote diversity and expressed by the authors of this report do public access, information and communication transformation within our institution and technologies, ICT, ICTD, M4D, mobile Internet, beyond, including growing the next cellular phone generation of academics. RECOMMENDED CITATION CONTACT INFO Walton, M., Donner, J., 2012. Public access, The Centre for Film and Media Studies private mobile: The interplay of shared access University of Cape Town and the mobile Internet for teenagers in Cape Upper campus, Arts Block Town. Global Impact Study Research Report Cape Town Series. Cape Town: University of Cape Town. Tel: +27 (0)21 650-2852 Web: http://www.cfms.uct.ac.za/ 2 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... 3 2. LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND IMAGES ................................................................................. 4 3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 5 4. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 8 5. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 13 6. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 20 7. DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS ................................................................................................ 24 8. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 57 9. REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 62 2. LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND IMAGES Table 1: Framing PAV and Mobile Internet Use ........................................................................................... 10 Figure 1: Fieldworkers Minah Radebe and Silke Hassreiter conduct task analysis and interviews. ............. 21 Figure 2: Access is multi-platform, multi-location. ....................................................................................... 29 Figure 3: PAV users access the “The Internet” for many different reasons and tasks. ................................ 30 Figure: 4 PAV users pursue different goals at the venue. ............................................................................ 31 Figure 5: PAV phone owners use advanced phone features. ....................................................................... 32 Figure 6: Learning apps: Networking from friends, production from teachers. ........................................... 34 Figure 7: Importance of venue attributes. .................................................................................................... 40 Figure 8: Satisfaction with venue attributes ................................................................................................. 41 Figure 9: Stated preferences: PC versus mobile versus mix. ........................................................................ 42 Figure 10: Relationships between participants and sociotechnical resources (school project). .................. 48 Table 2: Use of Mobile Resources by Type of Schooling .............................................................................. 50 Figure 11: Flash drives in project network diagrams—mobile and non-mobile users. ................................ 51 Table 3: Illustrative Quotes on Different Approaches to the Mobile Internet ............................................. 53 Figure 12: One reason there is little complementary use. ........................................................................... 54 Table 4: Threat or Opportunity? PAV Owner Assessments of Mobile Internet ........................................... 55 Figure 13: Things a PAV could do with mobiles. ........................................................................................... 56 Table 5: Framing PAV and Mobile Internet Use ........................................................................................... 58 4 3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Framing This report revolves around a simple question: “If you have the Internet in your pocket, why do you still visit a public access venue?” The mobile Internet is no longer restricted to those who can afford US$500 handsets. It is, instead, a worldwide phenomenon, propelled both by lower-cost smartphones, and by data-enabled “feature phones” which can cost as little as US$50. There are, of course, differences in the experience of Internet use between a simple candy bar phone and a desktop or laptop PC (Gitau, Marsden, & Donner, 2010; Goldstuck, 2010), but it is equally apparent that the mobile Internet is offering a new form of Internet access, one which promises to bring a billion or more users online (Morgan Stanley Research, 2009). The arrival of this private, accessible, but perhaps not optimal