How has the Monopoly of the Web effected the economy, society & industry?
BSc (Honours) Software Engineering
by Connor Robert Boyd ST20062729
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Cardiff Metropolitan University for the degree of BSc (Honours) Software Engineering.
Cardiff School of Management
April 2017
ii Declaration
I hereby declare that this dissertation entitled “How has the Monopoly of the Web effected the economy, society & industry?” is entirely my own work, and it has never been submitted nor is it currently being submitted for any other degree.
Candidate: Connor Robert Boyd
Signature:
Date:
Supervisor: Dr Chaminda Hewage
Signature:
Date:
iii Abstract
Since Tim Berners-Lee famously launched the World Wide Web it has been a historical masterpiece. The main protagonist in the rise of Internet Monopolists like Google, Facebook and Amazon, and the fall of Blockbuster, HMV and Walmart. The dissertations focus is on Internet Monopolists like Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg who dominate the Web. An analysis of the development of the Web from Web 1.0 though to the latter stages of Web 2.0 and the future for the Web, Web 3.0, otherwise known as the Semantic Web. Studying at the work of Andrew Keen, James Slevin, Tim Wu and many other professionals, the dissertation justifies how the Web has positively and negatively affected key aspects of everyday life, addressing issues such as Employability, Security, Money, and Competition. I feel that in modern society, money is the motivator, without money there would be no dominance. Monopolist companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are leaders in the global market, dominating other companies in their respective Web sectors. Through the application of literature and personal research, a conclusion can be justified as to what sort of effect the Web has had on the economy, society and industry. Methods used in gathering data include quantitative questionnaires, and data gathered is used in seeking a clear answer to the question, ‘How has the Monopoly of the Web effected the economy, society & industry?’. It is hoped the dissertation will inform researchers and practitioners about the influence internet monopolists have on the economy, society and industry.
iv Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor, Dr. Chaminda Hewage. Without his assistance and involvement in every step throughout the process, this dissertation would have never been accomplished.
I would also like to thank the members of my family for continued support and motivation throughout the entire process, the time spent proof reading my work, their wise counsel and sympathetic ear. Also, I thank my girlfriend for constantly reminding me to not give up and understanding how busy my schedule has been.
In addition, I would like to thank all participants of the questionnaire for their valuable opinions and input into the dissertation.
v Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Monopoly 1 1.2 Now and the Future 2 1.3 We are the 99% 3 1.4 Expected Outcome 3 2 Literature Review 4 2.1 Aims & Objectives 4 2.2 Literature Analysis 4 2.3 Modern Day Internet 5 2.4 Topics of Discussion 6 2.4 Future Study 6 3 Methods 6 3.1 Sampling 9 4 The Problem 10 5 The Money 11 5.1 Competition 13 5.2 E-Commerce 14 5.3 Entertainment 14 5.4 The Search Engine 16 5.5 The Social Network 18 5.6 Employability 20 5.7 The Selfie 22 5.8 Security 23 5.9 Children 25 5.10 Dark Web 27 5.11 Propaganda 26 6 Results and Findings 28 6.1 What do you enjoy doing most online? 29 6.2 How often do you use the following? 30 6.3 Do you think that some people spend too much time on the Internet and does this top them form socialising? 30 6.4 Do you think that the Internet is safe for children? Why? 31 6.5 What are some security issues you must think about when you access the Internet? 31 6.6 Final Outcome 33 7 Conclusion 34 7.1 Importance of Research 35 8 Bibliography and References 37 9 Appendices 41
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List of Tables
Methods 6 Table 1: Strengths and Weakness of conducting a questionnaire 7 Table 2: Strengths and Weakness of conducting an interview 8 The Money 11 Table 3: Dominant Companies Annual Revenue vs their direct rivals 13 Results and Findings 28 Table 4: The sample of participants 28
vii
List of Figures
Introduction 1 Figure 1: Evolution of Facebook 2 The Money 11 Figure 2: Poke’s fall from grace 12 Figure 3: How popular personal assistants have become 16 Figure 4: Annual Google Searches 1999-2012 17 Figure 5: 2014 Search Engine Market Share 17 Figure 6: Comparison of Web 1.0 & Web 2.0 sites 19 Figure 7: Amount lost compared to age of scammed users 23 Figure 8: Example of fake Amazon email 24 Figure 9: Most purchased items on the Dark Web 26 Figure 10: Silk Road’s website 27 Results and Findings 28 Figure 11: What do you enjoy doing most online? 29 Figure 12: How often do you use the following? 30
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ix Introduction
The World Wide Web (WWW) launched in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee, inspired by Ted Nelson and his idea of hypertext. In Nelsons hypertext system, there was no concept of deletion. Everything was remembered. Berners-Lee identified that the Internet and Hypertext had ‘come of age’. As he writes in his 1999 book, Weaving the Web, Berners-Lee noticed the gap in the Internet, leading to the birth of the World Wide Web.
The Web’s architecture was made up of three elements, a computer language – HTML, a taxonomy for travelling between hypertext files – HTTP, and finally, an address code linked to the hypertext file used to call up any files on the web – URL. By using this architecture for the Web, Berners-Lee could radically simplify the internet.
In November 1991, the first website, Info.cern.ch was launched. Over the last 25 years, the Web has been the Internet’s killer application, even more so than email. In his 1999 book John Naughton concludes “The internet is one of the greatest co-operative enterprises in the history of mankind” and with the creation of the Web the Internet has now achieved “liftoff”. Since the book was initially published in 1999, the Web has made waves worldwide, with over 1 billion websites now live. A massive increase since the first ever Website in 1991.
Without Berners-Lee’s incredible radicalisation of the Internet by introducing a single application, there would be no Google, Amazon, Facebook or the billions of other websites people use on a daily basis.
1991 represents the birth of a new period of history, the Networked Computer Age. The Internet has created new wealth, new debates, new markets and most importantly a new economy. Without the internet, the “One Percent Economy” and Internet Monopolists like Sergey Brin and Jeff Bezos would be nobodies working regular day-to-day jobs.
Monopoly
The Web is a competition. A competition on who can provide the best services for their users. It’s a dog eat dog economy. Most sectors of today are controlled by leading companies, like Facebook & Google. There is no better search engine than Google, and there hasn’t been since Yahoo was dethroned by Google as the best search engine in the mid 2000’s. Essentially, Google owns the search engine. Facebook dominates social media, owning WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus VR. eBay rules online auctions, running live real life auctions out of business. Apple dominates the mobile phone industry and online content delivery, albeit closely followed by Samsung and Android. Amazon controls retail through e-commerce and is the primary reason stores such as HMV, Woolworths and hundreds of bookstores have closed worldwide.
All the companies that dominate the new Networked Computer Age, are all part of ‘Web 2.0’ – the internet’s second stage of development, through user generated content and the growth of social media.
1
“Facing decline, they do everything possible to stay in power. And that’s when the rest of us suffer.”
- Tim Wu, Wall Street Journal, 2010
Specifically writing about Facebook, Tim Wu notes that even when they are out of favour in the social media market, Facebook will use their social media superpower and reputation to do everything to stay in power. Meaning up and coming social media platforms will suffer because of this. In 2015, Social Media photo sharing app Instagram was making headlines for all the right reasons - Facebook noticed this and bought the company for a tiny $1 Billion in cash and stock. It’s now 2017, and Instagram is estimated to be worth $36 Billion. Internet Monopolists like Facebook are buying the opposition, dominating their field and remaining the most popular platform.
The intent of Wu’s article for Wall Street Journal is clear: Every user of these dominant monopolies suffers. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are controlling the economy, eliminating any threat to their position as most dominant platform, and remaining as the dominant company in its sector.
Now and the Future
The first generation of internet sites, dubbed Web 1.0 by professionals, primarily gave information, connected by hyperlinks. Web 1.0 is generally believed to refer to static websites that were not yet providing interactive content.
Web 1.0 sites were non-profit educational sites that contained information useful to users, without any incentive to revisit the website in the future.
Web 2.0, the second generation of internet sites, has interactive data, unlike Web 1.0, Web 2.0 facilitates interaction between users and sites so it allows users to interact more freely with one another. It encourages collaboration, participation and sharing. Web 2.0 sites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on.
Figure 1: Evolution of Facebook
2 Facebook has evolved since 2004, with the site becoming more accessible and simple than ever before, yet it still encourages user interaction. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have even expanded into mobile apps, making their sites addictive for Web 2.0 users.
Web 3.0 is something for the future. Often referred to as Semantic Web, Web 3.0 refers to machine-to-machine interaction, where computers can interpret information like humans and intelligently generate and distribute useful content tailored for the needs of users. An example of a Web 3.0 application is IBM Watson, a question answering system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, named after IBM’s first CEO Thomas J. Watson. Watson is used at Imperial College London to predict crime, used at Citigroup Banks to improve customer relationships and interactions, and is used at Cleveland Clinic to research new cancer treatments, to name just a few of its business-related uses. (Christina Mercer, October 2016)
We are the 99%
Dominant Internet companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook all represent the “One Percent Economy”. Writers like Tom Perkins argue that the companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook are creating jobs – not causing inequality financially. At Perkins’ speech at the Commonwealth Club, held in San Francisco, many disagreed with this statement, seeing these companies as the cause of the massive poverty and unemployment. According to cultural historian Gary Kamiya “Techies used to seem endearing geeks, who made money and cute little products but couldn’t get the girls. Now they’re the lord and the masters.” Clearly aimed at the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Jeff Bezos, founders of Facebook, Google and Amazon, who’s respective companies now dominate in their sector.
It’s been over 25 years since Tim Berners-Lee harmlessly launched the Web, with only the “One Percent” gaining any income from their applications, dominating the Web. Rather than producing more jobs, the internet is dominated by winner take all companies like Facebook and Google that have monopolized the economy.
Expected Outcome
The expected outcome of this dissertation is to understand the effect Internet Monopolists and their interpretation of the Web is having on society, the economy and industry.
By dominating each sector of the Web, there is no room for other internet evangelists in the up and coming Web. Where dominant companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon control the Web and which sites are deemed to be most popular in an increasingly competitive industry, there is no room for new potential ideas that could possibly be the new Facebook or the new Google.
In such a winner take all industry, the big-dogs like Facebook and Google will target any threat to their superiority, turning it into a profit making sub-company of their own. By critically analysing each sector and what is currently dominant on the Web, a justification
3 and solution can be discovered as to why Internet Monopolists and the development of the Web is having such a huge effect on the society, economy and industry.
Literature Review
Aims & Objectives
This Literature review analyses, studies and argues the reasons for and against the World Wide Web having a significant effect on our lives since it was first introduced by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, and how it will continue to have a significant effect on our lives in the future.
The literature analysed will contribute massively to the dissertation as I feel it will give the most balanced argument about the internet, unlocking valuable opinions of many experts and professionals about the Internet such as Andrew Keen, James Slevin and Jamie Bartlett whilst also considering counter arguments from articles written by authors of the Guardian, TIME Magazine and the New York Times.
The literature chosen will provide the dissertation with clear and concise information regarding the chosen topic and will facilitate the dissertation in coming to a clear conclusion justifying the reasons for each topic covered in the dissertation. The objectives set in this Literature review are to identify which key topics will be discussed in the dissertation, and by reading such Literature I feel it will be beneficial in writing the dissertation. Each part of Literature will have a significant effect on the views expressed with opinions of the internet. By using such literature, a justification can be concluded by finding whether the Internet has had a positive or negative effect on our lives in the past, present and future.
Literature Analysis
I will be analysing a series of different books and articles found online, considering opinions of authors such as Andrew Keen and news articles written by the Guardian, The New York Times and Time Magazine. Andrew Keen is author of books such as The Internet is not the Answer (2015) and The Cult of The Amateur (2007). Keen (2015) argues that the internet is “killing” our culture, highlighting the effect of international mega companies such as Google, Amazon, and Social Media outlets like Facebook and Bebo for destroying professionalism and making it almost impossible to find high quality material amidst the user generated web-content and jargon found online.
Authors such as Keen argue that the internet was not intended to be how it is in modern day times. When Berners-Lee discovered the World Wide Web in 1989, he didn’t anticipate the “One Percent Economy”, nor did he anticipate the founders of multi-billion pound companies such as Google and Amazon reaping massive profits from every user to date. (Andrew Keen, 2015)
Other authors whose arguments I will be reviewing are authors such as James Slevin (2000) and Guy Kawasaki (2014), who both have divided opinions on the Internet. Slevin’s
4 arguments are like that of Andrew Keen’s, whereas Guy Kawasaki (2014) seems more concerned about being successful and being able to “rock” social media, giving tips and tricks on succeeding on Social Media websites such as Twitter, Reddit and Facebook.
Books such as The Internet from A to Z, written by John Cowpertwait and Simon Flynn (2000), merely scrape the barrel of the Internet and the World Wide Web, discussing the Internet’s origins and its effect and influence on modern times. Key topics such as Sport, News and People Finding among others are discussed and evaluated. The books main intention is to educate new users about the Internet, it is still a useful guide providing key websites to search when looking for information.
Another piece of literature I will be studying include The Internet and Society, written by James Slevin. In his book, Slevin provides key information regarding the internet and its effect on society, how its impacted everyday life and whether its longstanding effect will be one to remember or one to forget. Slevin (2000) also argues that the internet has changed the way humans create and communicate with one another, with the introduction of machines making life much easier. It can be argued that these machines are putting millions out of jobs and having a significant effect on employability, with UK unemployment falling to its lowest level since 2006 (Financial Times, 2017). Slevin highlights how some developments have transformed modern societies with the primary instigator in the internet reshaping society being human endeavour.
The Art of Social Media, written by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick (2014) is a more modern day book, ignoring the harsh effects of social media on users, where it teaches readers how to optimize their social media profiles, gain more followers on sites such as Instagram and Twitter and how to “perfect posts”. The authors tend to focus more on being an effective user of Social Media, whereas authors like Slevin and especially Andrew Keen both argue that Social Media sites are the reason modern society is so toxic, with users testing and advertising websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat for free. Developers of said Social Media sites are bringing in huge profits and massive revenue without needing to adopt advertising or marketing strategies as society is doing it for them, at zero cost.
Modern Day Internet
Since my dissertation is about the Internet and World Wide Web’s effect on our everyday lives, I will be covering every aspect of modern day internet. Examples of what I will be covering include:
Life Before Internet Web 1.0 Web 2.0 One Percent Economy Internet Monopolists Dark Web Privacy
5 Each aspect of the internet I intend on covering include all listed above, and will be reviewed in detail as appropriate.
Topics of Discussion
I will be discussing key topics from the Literature I have gathered such as Google’s Dominance, Facebook’s sudden rise from being a project in University to a World Wide Social Media superpower and how Amazon, since it was founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos, has shut down multimillion-pound high street stores such as HMV, Woolworths and even contributed to hundreds of Walmart stores closing in the US.
The specific focus of my research includes the internet and its dominance and influence on human society in 2017. Its ever-growing presence in our everyday lives continues to be a massive issue with employability rates dropping, millions of jobs being lost, invasion of privacy and the “One Percent Economy”, with power and privilege being used to skew the economic system to increase the gap between the richest being leading online application CEO’s like Jeff Bezos, Travis Kalanick, Larry Page and Sergey Brin to name only the minority.
Future Study
Areas for future study include further research into other influences on society and what else will influence our lives in the same way the internet has. Possible topics include Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, which is already in production at Google, and 3D printing. A topic of future study worth researching would be hardware such as the latter, which is more than guaranteed to have a massive effect on our futures, with talks of even 3D limbs being printed with a 3D printer. The Oculus Rift can be considered to have a massive change on the gaming industry, introducing a new style of augmented reality, making anything possible. An example of this is a programmer using Oculus Rift to let her grandmother, who was dying of cancer, take a virtual stroll around her garden and neighbourhood when she was too weak to do so in the real world
Another area of future study includes the brighter side of the “One Percent Economy”, where billionaires such as Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has a newfound transportation system in mind, creating train like vehicles that travel through tubes at speeds of up to 600mph – very like the London Underground, but on a much bigger scale. Another billionaire looking to make a difference with his wealth is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. Gates is using his wealth through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spending billions around the world to fight the spread of disease and develop richer sources of food for the neediest people in the world.
Methods
For Ethics Approval Form, see Appendix A.
When researching and gathering information regarding the dissertation, the approaches and methodology used includes the collection of standardised information from several
6 people. The purpose of the information is to compare opinions between different ages of society – the sample used for this approach was 100.
Questionnaires were used in collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, used in measuring parameters for making comparisons between the sample. The Questionnaire associated with the dissertation included 18 questions, however not all 18 will be used in gathering information.
The research philosophy adopted throughout the study is both Positivism and Interpretivism. The data collection methods adopted have been analysed and studied using the research onion (See Appendix B). A combination of mono method qualitative and quantitative data collection is a beneficiary to the dissertation in finding an outcome and solution to the question. Using a Positivism method, the data collection is highly structured, with a large sample using quantitative measurement methods. Interpretivism uses small in- depth samples and qualitative investigations in finding a solution to the question.
Using a deductive approach, testing the theory of the monopoly of the Web is effecting the society, economy and industry, emphasising causality and examining existing studies by professionals where the purpose is to conclude the effect of the Web socially, economically and industrially. A deductive approach is best suited to this study as testing existing theories and applying knowledge to examine the outcome, thus confirming or rejecting the theory.
By using Questionnaires as the dissertations main source of information gathering, there are strengths and weaknesses to doing so. These are noted in the table below.
Strengths Weaknesses Findings can be generalised to the sample There is no information on factors to help about which information is required. interpret results of different ages and backgrounds. Large amounts of information are easily Inadequate to understanding emotion and obtainable by a large sample in a short behaviour of participants. period of time. Results are quickly and easily quantified by Participants may not be truthful or find the the researcher. questionnaire dull. Comparison between results is simple. Participants may not respond in full context. Participant anonymity is guaranteed Participants interpretation of questions throughout. may vary. Participants having a hidden agenda, feeling bias towards questions. Table 1: Strengths and Weaknesses of conducting a questionnaire
To combat each weakness noted in the table, participant understanding will be widely valued, and a greater interpretation of results can be justified. By combating participant willingness to take part fully in the questionnaire, questions will be kept as clear and basic as possible, eliminating any opportunity for participants to include unrelated or irrelevant answers.
7
The questionnaire also included open-ended questions relevant to the topic, including children’s safety on the Web, security on the Web and social issues associated with the Web. The use of open-ended and a series of selection questions is more appropriate to my desired topic than the use of interviews or behaviour observation.
The results and questions included in the questionnaire can be duplicated and used in further research methodologies, used in measuring precision of other samples i.e. different ages, different advertising platforms, different sample groups to gather a different form of results. It’s almost guaranteed that by duplicating and reproducing the questionnaire, results will generally be different to the first initial release of the questionnaire.
By using quantitative and qualitative research methods, a clear response from participants can be gathered, gaining an insight into participant tendencies, opinions and feelings on a particular topic – here, opinions and feelings are gathered on topics related to the Web like security, privacy and accessibility.
By using a questionnaire as the dissertations primary source of gathering information, qualitative and quantitative methods are utilised, however quantitative methods are adopted more frequently in a questionnaire, gathering statistics and information on a relevant topic, rather than gathering feelings and emotions towards a topic using a qualitative method.
In the questionnaire, gathering qualitative responses may prove to be difficult – asking for opinions about a situation or topic can lead to participant misunderstanding and a lack of face-to-face interaction like there would be in an interview is missing.
Gathering information through a qualitative method like an interview may be easier, however there are constraints to doing so, noted in the table below.
Strengths Weaknesses Face-to-face interviews promote contact Time consuming. and participant understanding. Elicitation of hard-to-quantify information Wasting crucial interview time is easy – is made easier. must be well structured. Detailed responses are easier to gather. Less quantitative than a questionnaire. Group interviews express feeling and Participant availability is an issue. opinions. Anonymous interviews promote more Not anonymous so gaining opinions and honest answers. gathering participant feelings may be difficult. Questions can be produced before and Participants may not be as open to respond during interviews, relying on participant as with a questionnaire. interaction. Table 2: Strengths and Weaknesses of conducting an interview
8 To compare an interview with a questionnaire, interviews are a better form of gathering quantitative results, where a questionnaire is a better form of gathering qualitative results. In this dissertation, samples of a qualitative form are easier for analysis and studying results relevant to the dissertation topic.
Gathering quantitative information in the form of an interview may prove to be time consuming, and gathering participant feelings will prove to be an issue, as human interaction regarding opinions is harder to gather face-to-face than through and online or anonymous survey.
Regardless of promised anonymity in an interview, the participant is still aware of the researcher knowing their identity, therefore may produce different results to if they had full anonymity – this can result in inaccurate data and potentially damage expected results.
Sampling
For Participant Information Sheet, see Appendix C.
Since the sample was 100 participants answering the questionnaire anonymously, providing only their age for data analysis purposes. The age of participants ranges from 18 years old and older, meaning samples using only adults are used. Using participants of diverse ages means diverse responses, which can be utilised in critically analysing responses.
To gather responses from participants, the questionnaire was advertised on social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Participants from professional workplaces was also gathered, gaining an insight into ideas and opinions of participants. Most participants included users of Facebook and Twitter, mainly Facebook friends and associates from where the post was shared by other participants.
By releasing the questionnaire to a different population, answers received and diverse responses may be less frequent, for example, had the questionnaire been released to students, participants would normally be between the ages of 18 and 23, very rarely breaking the age barrier of 23.
Sampling bias may be considered an issue, as it occurs when the population is selected that are all part of a group of people i.e. participants in one workplace. Using samples only from one workplace would mean a less diverse response to the questions and potentially some bias towards questions. This was prevented by gathering samples from a diverse anonymous population.
The target population whilst sampling was participants of all ages and genders whose responses would be used to reflect patterns in the questionnaire. By analysing response patterns of ages, a diverse opinion on the Web’s effect on the economy, society and industry can be recorded accurately.
9 The Problem
When Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web, he didn’t anticipate the competition companies would face in becoming the most dominant company in their field. The Web has turned into a winner-takes-all fest with only the most dominant companies of the last decade reigning.
Worldwide multi-billion pound companies like Google & Amazon rule everything that is the Internet. When Google went live in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin only created a search engine, to organise information on the Internet to help users find what they are looking for. It began as a search engine, which searched through new and old web pages and sorts them based on the relevance to a user’s search.
It’s now 2017, and Google is the second most dominant Internet company in the world, only second to Amazon. As of 2015, Google’s revenue was over $74 Billion, and Amazons was an astonishing $107 Billion. (Financial Times, 2015)
As of 2015, Google and Amazon combined have higher revenue than the next 23 richest companies in the world. Listed in the 23 richest companies in the world are the likes of Facebook, who control Social Media owning Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus VR. Other companies on the list include eBay that controls online auctions, with annual revenue of $8 Billion upwards, Netflix, that controls online video streaming. Netflix is arguably responsible for Video Stores like HMV closing hundreds of stores in the UK and Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy in 2010.
Amazon, another multi-billion-pound company which initially started selling books, is now the world’s biggest online retailer, responsible for hundreds of Walmart owned stores closing and filing for bankruptcy worldwide. Amazon are now in direct competition with Walmart for most dominant worldwide retailer, with Walmart coming out on top. Walmart’s success is primarily down to the fact it has been a world-renowned company since its founding in 1962 – in 55 years’ time, when Amazon has been around as long as Walmart at this stage in 2017, they will undoubtedly be worth more than Walmart are now. This is still not a bad business venture for Jeff Bezos who initially started Amazon with the intention of only selling books.
There are up and coming Internet Monopolists too, like Über, described on their website as ‘a convenient, inexpensive and safe taxi service’. Founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick, Über has risen to dominate the transportation industry, offering services like ÜberPOOL, ÜberX and other car services, with executive vehicles ranging from Toyota Prius’ to Mercedes E- Class.
Über is now that much of a popular company, it’s teamed with Blade, offering helicopter rides from New York City to The Hamptons for $3,000 per person. The service is called ÜberCHOPPER, and the company has even mentioned plans about developing a fully electric aeroplane within the next ten years.
10 There has been much debate surrounding Über, with taxi drivers especially being against the company. In Costa Rica, Brazil and South Africa, Über drivers have been attacked and beaten by taxi drivers in protest, the reason for this being local independent taxi drivers who relied on their profits to feed their families and maintain a stable life, were being pushed out of their jobs by the monopoly of a larger company.
There have been countless lawsuits against Über, with lawsuits being filed by Atlanta taxicab drivers, Philadelphia taxicab drivers and more notably a Lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind, in response to Über’s denial of services to over thirty blind passengers. Although Über remains the most popular transport application of the modern- day internet, there are so many people worldwide against Über, with millions expressing their dislike towards the company. Über is dominating the transport industry, like Google and Amazon dominate in their sectors.
According to authors like Andrew Keen, writer of The Internet is Not the Answer, ‘an unregulated network society is breaking the old center, compounding economic and cultural inequality’. – Keen has a point here, with dominant companies like Google, Amazon and Über, people who are trying to make a living like taxi drivers, bookstores and retail stores are failing to do so due to the financial inequality these powerful companies possess.
Internet evangelists, like Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Travis Kalinick and Jeff Bezos who all started their companies from the ground up, are now among the richest men in the world. They are all evangelists who have kept their companies competitive in a forever changing industry, keeping up with social trends and changes to make their companies the most appealing to users everywhere.
The Money
Society nowadays is driven by money. Money is the motivator. Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Über will do the utmost to stay on top in their sector, to be the 1%.
Companies like Facebook and Google have literally bought the competition, with Facebook buying Instagram for only $1 Billion in 2012 and turning it into a $36 Billion mega company, controlling the photo sharing sector of Social Media. Google have also bought opposition, buying YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 Billion and giving it a new value of estimated $26 Billion upwards.
Even though there are huge profits for the mega companies dominating their sectors, some of the companies have taken risks by investing in ambitious ideas, and having the financial superpower to do so, it hasn’t always paid off.
Take Google for example, investors in ideas like Google Video, designed to compete with YouTube. Google Video failed, so what did Google do? They Bought YouTube, offering its owners an offer they couldn’t refuse, $1.65 Billion in and all stock deal. (Matt Marshall, 2006) Google have taken risks on companies like Boston Dynamics, a robotics company that makes life sized animal robots. Google bought Boston Dynamics for $500 Million in 2013,
11 and following four unsuccessful years, announced in 2016 that they were looking to sell Boston Dynamics, as it hasn’t quite been the success initially predicted.
They have even tried competing with the likes of Facebook, launching Google+ in 2011. Less than a decade later Google+ are still trying to compete with Facebook, but is becoming more of a laughing stock within the Web industry rather than a professional social media site. Google+ has over $2.5 Billion users, with 90% of the accounts having never made a post. (Telegraph, 2017)
Facebook are also keen to dominate the Web, investing in very successful ideas like Instagram and WhatsApp which are now worth over $50 Billion combined. However, besides investing in Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook haven’t made a mark elsewhere - failing to make the acquisition of Snapchat in a $3 Billion cash-only offer in 2013. Mark Zuckerberg met Evan Speigel, founder of Snapchat on several occasions. After Speigel turned down Facebooks $3 Billion offer, Facebook created an application called Poke, mechanically identical to Snapchat. In the first week on Apple App Store charts, Poke got to number one on Apple’s free download charts, and less than a month later was outside of the top 500 free applications.
Figure 2: Poke’s fall from grace (AppAnnie, 2013)
Snapchat however, had a $10 Billion offer standing from Chinese super company Alibaba, again Snapchat declined the offer, but Alibaba invested $200 million in the up-and-coming application. In 2017, Snapchat is estimated to be worth around $30 Billion.
Facebook are still refusing to give up however, continuing to copy Snapchats ideas, introducing ‘stories’ into their Instagram application, the same as what Snapchat already had on offer. As of March 2017, Facebook itself has even introduced ‘stories’, in a desperate bit to compete with Snapchat in the photo messaging sector of social media.
12 Facebook have also failed in competing with the likes of eBay and Amazon, introducing the currently active Facebook Marketplace, where users sell their unwanted items through their application and online. Bowen Pan, Marketplace’s project manager has said that 450 million people already use Facebook to buy and sell items through groups.
Again, copying eBay with location search, viewing items and sellers, making bids or offers and arranging payments and delivery, it has struggled to maintain a position as an online marketplace, having not been a priority for Facebook. It has taken a more ‘good faith’ approach, hoping that users will be selling items without online scamming or violating any Marketplace rules. Pan, however, has said in a statement that Facebook will not get involved if customers are scammed, ripped off, or assaulted for any items they’re selling on the Marketplace. Facebook are clearly not passionate enough about the Marketplace, but it’s just been implemented into their application just to compete with the likes of eBay and Amazon – keeping Facebook dominant on the Web.
Competition
Each sector in the internet industry is controlled by only one company, with the dominant companies usually buying or investing heavy amounts in the companies that threaten their position as top company in their sector. The table below shows exactly this.
Company Sector Company Annual Rival Rivals Annual Revenue Revenue (2016) (2016) (B$) (B$) Amazon E-Commerce $135.9 Walmart $486 (Retail) Google Search $89.5 Yahoo $1.5 Facebook Social $27.6 LinkedIn $2.9 Twitter £2.5 eBay E-Commerce $17.9 Gumtree $0.098 (Auction) Netflix Entertainment $8.83 Blockbuster $0 (Streaming) HMV $0.325 Table 3: Dominant companies Annual Revenue vs their direct rivals.
Companies are crossing each other’s paths, investing in ideas to keep competitive in a dog- eat-dog industry. You see companies like Facebook competing in photo messaging and e- commerce, whilst Google are competing in social media. Amazon are competing in online entertainment and Spotify are competing in social media, connecting user’s music playlists with Facebook.
In such a competitive industry, every leading company is trying to be number one. All investing in fresh ideas in a hope it will be the next big thing to take the Web by storm, further enhancing their status as the dominant company on the Web. Without the Web, home-grown bookstores, video stores, and music stores would still be selling on the high
13 streets. Instead Internet companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google are making smaller companies go bankrupt, taking their customers and reaping the massive profits from the number of visitors and buyers of their products. The competition nowadays is so strong, should any up and coming application or website become popular, the likes of Facebook, Google or Amazon will make an irresistible offer, maintaining their authority as the most dominant companies on the Web.
E-Commerce
Starting with Amazon, their direct rival in the market is Walmart. As of 2016, Walmart is the biggest company in the world, with a revenue of $486 Billion. Their direct rival, Amazon, has a revenue of only $135.9 Billion. Of course, $135.9 Billion is a fortune when money is involved, however Walmart demolishes Amazon when it comes to money. So why are they rivals? Since Amazon has been able to compete with Walmart worldwide, it has been a threat to Walmart’s popularity and status as a leading worldwide company.
Since Amazon delved into the competitive commercial market, Walmart has always been under threat by their internet popularity. On one hand, Amazon is the biggest company in online retail, and on the other, Walmart is the biggest brick-and-mortar retailer in the world. They have been in constant competition to becoming the world’s best retailer – Amazon is well known for its algorithmic approach to presenting products to its customer as well as using real time data to analyse pricing, where Walmart barely even have an online platform. Their store is all brick-and-mortar. This is a major setback for Walmart, missing the opportunity to gain a one-up on Amazon in the Internet economy.
The Wall Street Journal noted that in 2015, Walmart’s e-commerce sales amounted to around $14 Billion, three percent of its $486 Billion in yearly revenue. Walmart’s recent acquisition of Jet, an online shopping site that has only been live for around 3 years, has enhanced their e-commerce activities, promoting a better online competition with Amazon. This is a sign that Walmart have identified their inability to compete with Amazon on an e- commerce scale and are acting to enhance their online presence within the Internet market.
Entertainment
Online video entertainment is dominated by Netflix. The main protagonist in Blockbusters fall from a leading video rental shop, to being bankrupt. Founded in 1997 and beginning mainly as a DVD subscription service, Netflix has taken advantage of the rapidly evolving technology and internet speeds to become one of the largest video distribution networks on the planet. Netflix’s main rival was Blockbuster, a company which filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Prior to extortionate internet speeds, Blockbuster had over 8,000 stores and was valued at $5 Billion in 2003, but competition from online streaming and on-demand rental sites proved too tough for Blockbuster to handle.
Netflix is now the leading Internet video entertainment network with over 36 million members in over 40 countries. Although they are the leading video entertainment network, their subscription services seen a major change, going from 14 million subscribers in 2011, to less than 7 million by the end of 2013 (IBT, 2013), reflecting the change in demand for
14 online video services with users opting for a cheaper and more easily accessible video entertainment site.
Even with a drastic loss in online subscriptions, Netflix is still valued at $41.1 Billion, amassing $8.83 Billion in sales as of 2016. (Forbes, 2016) Another direct rival in the internet video entertainment network is Prime Video, owned by Amazon.
The cost of Netflix’s cheapest subscription is £5.99 a month, which includes only one screen viewing and no HD content. Netflix’s most expensive subscription is £8.99 a month with 4K Ultra HD and four screen viewing. To compete with this, a Prime Video subscription is cheaper than a Netflix subscription, at £5.99 a month, also offering free next day delivery, Prime Music and more. It provides customers with better value for money in a competitive industry. Slowly but surely, Amazon are taking over the Internet video entertainment network.
Along with an Amazon Prime subscription, users are also getting Prime Music, designed to compete with the likes of Spotify. Wall Street Journal have valued Spotify at $8.4 Billion, with 20 million paying users of the application. Spotify s currently the most popular Facebook application, ahead of other audio streaming rivals like YouTube and Soundcloud.
As with Netflix, Amazon Prime is beginning to dominate the industry in three different sectors, having already dominated the e-commerce sector, the site is gaining more interest through its Prime Video and Prime Music services, which come at no extra cost through an Amazon Prime membership – Amazon are eating the competition to become the most popular in each of these sectors.
Online video entertainment companies like Netflix and Prime Video do suffer from setbacks. With the ongoing rise of free video sharing websites, albeit sometimes illegally, many users often choose to watch online video’s through third party free-to-watch sites that offer the same as Netflix and Prime Video.
For years now, free content has been available on websites such as Popcornflix.com and TubiTV, where they offer an abundance of the recent films and TV Shows, available after only signing up for free. This could be damaging to the reputation of sites like Netflix and Prime Video, and could have been the reason in Netflix’s loss of subscribers to their video streaming services.
This may only be a minor dent in Netflix and Prime Video’s profits, but with more free video sites going live daily, it could only hinder subscription video sites from attracting more subscribers, with the majority obviously choosing the option of free content rather than paying for content.
The Search Engine
Google, the most used search engine in the world, processes over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. There are three major search engines Google, Yahoo and Bing - the most dominant has never been a case of debate.
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The majority use Google, but unconsciously are using Bing through their Apple devices. Siri, Apple’s built in “intelligent assistant” is powered by Bing, so whenever Apple device users are making a query through Siri, all the information is found through Bing. Bing works like Google in that the more people that are looking for a website, the more likely it is to be at the top of the search results.
Google have combated Apple’s use of Bing for Siri by introducing Google Assistant. This is not only to compete with Apple’s Siri, it will compete with Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. All working in similar fashion, coming with all the usability pro’s and con’s, it’s mainly down to personal preference as to what device assistant people prefer.
Using Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana, each of the respective owners of each personal assistance are all subconsciously in competition with one another. Albeit down to user preference, the personal assistants are available to adhere to user’s needs, including music playback, setting alarms, and providing real time information.
Artificial Intelligence is growing into a dominant force in the Internet, with over one billion people having access to iPhones with Siri (Sam Costello, 2017), Cortana having over 100 million monthly active users (Joe Osborne, 2016), Alexa having 1.9 million app downloads (Priori Data, 2017) and Google Assistant dealing with 20% of all mobile queries being voice searches. (Greg Sterling, 2016)
Figure 3: How popular personal assistants have become (VoiceLabs 2017)
With the increasing popularity between each of the personal assistants, Google reigns supreme with over 1.6 trillion annual searches worldwide, rising from 1.2 trillion searches in 2012. (InternetLiveStats.com)
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Figure 4: Annual Google Searches 1999-2012, InternetLiveStats.com 2017
Google is clearly the most dominant of the three search engines – they aren’t just a search engine, they innovate in new technology like driverless cars & Google for business. Google have already expanded into other markets, branching new and exciting ideas to compete with other leading companies in different sectors.
Yahoo, is the former best search engine. Since Google has come about and now dominates the search engine sector, Yahoo have been forced to venture elsewhere into the internet, buying companies such as Flickr and Tumblr. The number of visits to Yahoo, however has increased in previous years – but mainly due to Tumblr being such a popular blogging site.
Bing Yahoo 8% 2%
Google 90%
Figure 5: 2014 Search Engine Market Share, according to SearchEngineLand
Google dominates the Search Engine sector, and they are branching even further into dominating the Web. Google oversees companies like Android and YouTube – further expanding into the mobile phone industry competing with another multi-billion-pound company in Apple, and Google already own the leading video sharing site, YouTube. Not to
17 mention Google run their own search engine, Google also oversees Maps, Images, reCAPTCHA – a security system that prevents bots and so many more.
For the future, Google have upcoming projects like Google Robotics, self-driving cars, 3D mapping, and their own contact lens. Who would’ve thought, when Google was first launched, that it would dominate the economy socially and financially?
The Social Network
There are hundreds of different Social Networks, all designed to do different things. Facebook is designed to connect people – bringing people together. When the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg creating the site, he was a 19-year-old teenager that was so socially awkward people considered him autistic. Even now, in 2017, it’s clear to see Zuckerberg is yet to shake the awkward persona. Regardless of this, he has created a masterpiece. As of 2015, Facebook had 1.4 Billion active daily users, with over 900 million users having access to their mobile application.
Facebook has grown into that much of a presence in the economy, there was even a 2010 film created about the site called The Social Network which follows Zuckerberg’s story as a socially awkward teenager turned into one of the youngest billionaires ever. According to Andrew Keen, “Zuckerberg has created the greatest generator of conversation in history,”. Facebook has become a winner-take-all company in the Internet’s social sector. In July 2014, it reached a market cap of $190 Billion, making it more valuable than Coca-Cola, founded in 1892 & Disney, founded in 1923.
Before Facebook, there were other Social Media sites that didn’t quite hit it off – SocialNet, created by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman was the first, founded in 1997. This was followed by Friendster in 2002 and MySpace in 2003. Since Facebook’s founding in 2004, these sites are a mere shadow of the more dominant site. By 2008 when MySpace was sold for $580 million, Facebook was already valued at $15 Billion by the New York Times, amassing 100 million members.
By February 2010, Facebook’s community had grown to 400 million members, operating in 75 different languages, and by 2014 Facebook was hosting more than 1.3 Billion members, 19% of the global population at the time. Like Google & Amazon, Facebook is becoming ever more powerful, not just on the Internet, but in society.
It can be argued that the transition between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 was around the time Facebook was launched. It made Web 1.0 websites like MySpace, Friendster and SocialNet look mediocre to compare with its Web 2.0 features, promoting connectivity and accessibility for its users.
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Figure 6: Side by side comparison of ALIWEB, a Web 1.0 site, and Facebook, a Web 2.0 site.
Mark Zuckerberg has revolutionised twenty-first-century communication by populating a bizarre cult of the social – making privacy completely obsolete. In America during the 1960’s, people were afraid of the government and institutions alike because they kept personal data and surveillance on the community. Facebook, however has promoted surveillance, requesting user’s personal information to ‘unite’ its users.
A direct competitor of Facebook is LinkedIn, designed specifically for the business community, the goal of the site is to allow users to create an online network of people they know and trust professionally. It’s a site like Facebook, but more professional. Facebook is a casual site, where LinkedIn unites workers and professionals through their careers and career prospects. On LinkedIn users can use their profile as an online CV, promoting new job opportunities and openings, connecting with employers and fellow professionals.
Bought for $26 Billion in 2016 by Microsoft, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella saying, “Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.” It’s created a new relationship with the one of the most powerful companies in the world, Microsoft, and through the combination of the Microsoft cloud and LinkedIn’s network, connecting professionals to make them more productive and successful.
LinkedIn isn’t a company fuelled by money like Facebook – it focuses on uniting professionals through their careers further enhancing their employability opportunities. It has a reported 433 Million users (Craig Smith, 2016) Like Facebook, however, the site amasses so much data, knowing where users work, their skills & ambitions, and what interests people share. Knowing more and more about users than ever before, is now almost required, with the information gathered used to create a user’s profile and make it as complete as possible.
There are social networks, however, which are very low-key and don’t delve into the personal lives of their users, like Reddit. Founded by Alexis Ohanian in 2005, is the self- described “front page of the internet”, which in 2013 amassed 56 billion page views from 40 million pages of unedited content created by its 3 million users. (Craig Smith, 2016)
19 Reddit is full of user generated information and threads described as the ‘scourge of the internet’ by Katy Takaoaka, its full of internet trolls. Unlike sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, Reddit requires only a username, email and password to sign up, not needing to know about user’s personal lives to make the ultimate profile.
Reddit’s main attribute is the number of trolls and memes that are on the site. In contrast to this, the most popular post on Reddit in 2013 was a series of posts about the Boston Marathon Bomber. In 2017, the most popular posts on the thread are about the presidential election, involving Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Split political views are expressed on the website, so although Reddit can be deemed as ‘a site full of trolls’, there are very professional users debating on threads such as r/politics and r/worldnews – a site where professionals go for some entertainment outside of sites like LinkedIn and Facebook?
According to worthofweb.com, Reddit’s estimated value is $4.6 Billion. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Facebook but it does spark debate on why Reddit, a site like Facebook without the personal information, has amassed so little revenue per month ($41 Million) to compare with Facebooks ($211 Million), even though Reddit is only a year younger than Facebook. The answer is clear – Facebook are the most dominant Social Media platform in a winner take all economy.
Employability
Writers like Nicholas Carr argue that the Web is designing a society that threatens to discard human beings. With the introduction of automation and robotics, hundreds of workers are losing jobs to said robots. The infrastructure of the Web and Web 3.0 opens a door of opportunity for robotics, following Google’s acquisition of Boston Dynamics in 2014, many technological writers argued that the innovative new way of completing tasks has been made much easier with the introduction of robotics.
As well as acquiring Boston Dynamics, Google also acquired a further seven robotics companies in the second half of 2013. (Samuel Gibbs, Guardian, 2013) Google also managed to acquire DeepMind, “the last large independent company with a strong focus on artificial intelligence,” for $500 million, and it acquired Nest Labs, a leader in smart home devices like smart thermostats, for $3.2 billion. (Andrew Keen, 2015)
“The robots are coming and will terminate your jobs.” Tim Harford, 2013
According to technology journalist, Dan Rowinski, Google are playing a game of Moneyball in the age of artificial intelligence – setting itself to be the dominant company in the age of intelligent computing, beginning with controlling a leading sector of Web 3.0.
As of 2013, Google showed interest in Über, another huge ‘job killer’. Google invested $258 million in Über, and as Chunka Mui of Forbes notes, “Google Car plus Uber equals Killer App.” Über have also dabbled in the drone delivery service, with the likes of Google and Über maybe even competing in home delivery against UPS, FedEx and Hermes, replacing the jobs of thousands of delivery drivers and postmen worldwide.
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The impact of drone delivery can be massive, with UPS and FedEx alone hiring over 700,000 staff in 2013. The New York Times writer Claire Miller notes “FedEx needs Amazon more than Amazon needs FedEx.” With Amazon also introducing Prime Air in 2016, using an autonomous drone to deliver to a customer in under 13 minutes (Amazon, 2016). The drones can travel up to 50 miles per hour and deliver packages weighing up to 2.6kg. This goes to show that with Amazon introducing their own drone delivery service, FedEx, UPS and Hermes will no longer be required in the near future to deliver Amazon packages, resulting in millions of workers worldwide losing their jobs.
With Amazon introducing Prime Air, and Google having acquired seven robotics companies, they will both be market leaders in robotics competing with one another, to eliminate the jobs in the economy. In a 2014 statement, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told his investors that he expected to be using 10,000 robots in its fulfilment centres by the beginning of 2015, following a $775 million acquisition of Kiva Systems, a maker of robots used for servicing warehouses. Robots of Kiva Systems are already being used in Amazon’s online shoe retailer, Zappos, retrieving and picking between 200 and 400 items an hour.
According to George Packer in his New Yorker article, “Amazons warehouse jobs are gradually being taken over by robots, eliminating the human factor from shopping, and we will finally be all alone with our purchases.” Amazons algorithmic approach to shopping tends to user’s needs, already knowing what users want before entering the store, where a robot fulfils the order, delivered by a Prime Air drone.
Mark Zuckerberg has also invested in Vicarious, which mimics human learning. According to Vicarious’ founder, Scott Phoenix, it’s goal is to replicate the neocortex, “creating a computer that thinks like a person, except it doesn’t have to sleep.” Vicarious’ future intentions include learning how to cure disease, create renewable energy and perform the jobs that employ most human beings. A worrying statement by Phoenix, with the upcoming intelligence of robotics and automation, millions of jobs could be lost by 2040. (Eric Schmidt, 2014)
Robotics like Vicarious are a major cause for concern in the internet society. Since Vicarious are based around human interaction and creating computers that are like humans, the machines will lack the intellect humans have in being able to diffuse certain situations and scenarios. This is a concern socially because should machines like Vicarious be around to replace human interaction in the workplace, humans will be without jobs and even more drastically, without a future, since there is such emphasis on robotics and automation being the future.
According to Carl Benedikt Frey, in his Oxford University paper the Future of Employment, 2013, 47% of all American jobs might be lost in the next couple of decades, with many jobs now likely of being replaced by automation and robotics including telemarketers, accounts clerks and library technicians. With the ongoing threat of robotics to human’s careers in any industry, the economy can further worry that robotics will indeed terminate our jobs.
21 A prime example of the new modern era of Internet consuming jobs is Instagram – when it was bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1 Billion, it had thirteen full time employees. Meanwhile in Rochester, New York, Kodak, originally a camera and photo sharing company, closed thirteen factories and 130 photo labs, making 47,000 employees’ redundant in the process.
So how did a billion-dollar app manage to get so popular with only thirteen full time employees? The community. The users of the app. All the user labour on apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are all free forms of advertising. We are creating the value in applications, not the companies. Companies like WhatsApp were dealing with over 54 billion messages from its 450 million users, had only employed 55 staff. The new modern internet age and Web 2.0 applications like WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram are all a clear representation of the winner take all economy and dog eat dog industry that is the Web.
The Selfie
The selfie is now a dominant mode of expression, it’s a way of saying “Hello, this is me.” (Andrew Keen, 2015) People from Barack Obama, to the Queen are all taking selfies, using apps like Instagram and Snapchat – the two leading photo sharing apps worldwide. Selfie, Oxford Dictionaries word of the year for 2013, has revolutionised the way people communicate online.
It’s now a dominant force in the Web industry, with almost every social media site all containing selfies taken by the user. Instagram’s original intention was to ‘capture the worlds moments’, not have news feeds full of its user’s ‘advertising themselves’. Essentially, the users of Instagram are what have shaped the app to being such a success in 2017. Without the selfie, apps like Instagram and Snapchat would cease to exist – even dominant social media sites like Facebook and Twitter would not be as popular if it weren’t for the selfie.
Instagram famous is a common term in 2017, with many online celebrities originating from Instagram. The likes of Dan Bilzerian, described as the ‘Hugh Hefner of our generation’ by thewebtrovert.com, flaunts money, guns and women on his Instagram account to his 5.5 million followers. Celebrities like Kendall Jenner earns between $125,000 and $300,000 per Instagram post. The Social Media site has taken the Web by storm, and owes most of its success to the selfie.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Sherry Turkle perfectly described the selfie generation as being “alone together”. The more social we become, by connecting and collaborating, the lonelier we become. A recent study by the University of Michigan found that Instagram and Facebook were making people unhappier and more envious of others.
“A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.”
Along with the selfie generation comes a lot of deception. People are creating a fake representation of themselves online, using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to make fake
22 profiles and essentially conning other app users into thinking they’re real people. Used to spark online relationships, unknowing victims fall for the men or women they meet online, having no idea who is behind the screen. Most catfishes use the fake accounts to give off a persona that they wish they had, with people believing they’re dating celebrities or sending money to the catfish after hearing their fake stories about their fake lives.
Security
Another cause for concern is online fraud and identity theft. Online security has been a major cause for concern on the Web, with companies storing a lot of information on their customers & users. Usually, the information stored is used in targeted advertising and algorithmic methods in giving a user exactly what they’re looking for. Amazon, with their algorithmic approach to e-commerce target users shopping habits very well, understanding what their customers need and recommending said items.
All companies are entitled to a privacy policy, used in letting users know their information is safely stored within the company. Multi-national companies like Apple store personal data using computer systems with limited access housed in facilities using physical security measures. iCloud data is stored in encrypted form. (Apple, 2016)
Online phishing scams have been utilised of recent during ‘the fappening’ and ‘the fappening 2.0’, this is where online hackers have managed to gain access to celebrities’ personal information and cloud accounts, obtaining personal pictures of said celebrities and releasing them to the public. The eventual hacker, Ryan Collins, was accused of gaining unauthorised access to protected computers to obtain information, resulting in him serving 18 months in a federal prison. (BBC, March 2016)
Phishing scams are seen almost every day, with fake profiles posing to be companies like Amazon, Apple & RBS. According to scamwatch.au, in 2016 alone over $373,000 was lost to phishing scams.
Figure 7: Amount lost compared to age of scammed users.
23 Not many internet users under the age of 18 tend to fall for phishing scams. – Since they are 18 have don’t really have any source of income, they’re ignored by the scammers. Scammers tend to target older generations who won’t be as aware to a phishing scam as an experienced internet user. The chart above shows that in 2016 over 70,000 scam attempts were reported, resulting in a loss of over $51 million combined. People of the ages of over 65 have lost the most, losing a total of $13,576,997 from 20,625 reported incidents.
Figure 8: An example of a fake Amazon email.
Usually these phishing scams are noticeable, and being able to differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t is relatively simple. Noticeable differences include:
Misleading domain name e.g. [email protected] Generic non-personalised greeting e.g. Dear Sir/Madam/User/Client Often hyperlink to amend, change or delete fake orders redirect to phishing site Style of email sent looks unprofessional
Phishing scams are also used in credit card fraud and identity theft, where perpetrators use fraudulent websites to source funds in the form of an online transaction. Identity theft is where a user uses another person’s personal data without authorization deceive a company or someone else. For example, using someone’s personal information to open a bank account using their personal details and then making charges to the account.
To protect customers and users, the role of a company is very important. Safeguarding user’s personal information is a priority for multi-billion pound leading companies like Google & Facebook, with their privacy policies clearly explained and legislation used in protecting customer data. By protecting user information, customers grow to trust companies, providing more information, which is key in maintaining a long term commercial relationship between company and customer.
24 A recent example involving new modern technology includes Amazon’s Alexa. Following a murder in Arkansas, detectives were seeking access to audio that was potentially recorded using Alexa’s voice activation system. However, Amazon are refusing demands by the authorities. Like the Apple vs FBI case of 2016, data was encrypted and the company’s privacy policy refused the authorities access to the personal device.
Apple, Google and WhatsApp have also come under scrutiny of recent with their new form of default encryption. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary has vowed to “call time” on companies like WhatsApp, who give terrorists “a place to hide”, as authorities were powerless to access Westminster attacker Adrian Ajao’s final WhatsApp message. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook’s encryption policies was enabling terrorists to communicate in “secret”, knowing authorities would be denied access to their encrypted communications. WhatsApp uses end to end encryption, which prevents even the companies own technicians from accessing messages. The messages are only accessible by the sender and reader, with many calls for WhatsApp to follow the footsteps of another rival messaging service, Telegram, who encrypts messages but also enables law enforcement authorities access to messages following a criminal investigation. (Telegraph, 2017)
Children
A major cause for concern within the Web is children. When children and the Web are concerned many questions are asked – Should children be allowed on the web? Should we filter searches so children don’t come across anything obscene? People like Jamie Oliver have banned his children from Social Media and the Web, and in many families, there is a constant feud between parents and children between demands for the Web.
Without online filters or website blocks, children have access to anything online – this includes pornography, online predators, and addiction. Many argue that the Web is bad for children to use for entertainment, as one thing can lead to another and the child is on a banned site or a site not suitable for their age. Speaking to people online as a child comes with many dangers, with sexual predators and paedophiles being online and able to chat with children.
Accessing pornography for children is another concern, since it is as accessible as finding a game on the Web, miss-clicks and curiosity can lead to a child accessing the wrong websites unsuitable for their age. With the introduction of new smart phones, accessing the Internet is easier than ever before. According to a 2014 study by the London School of Economics and Political Science, 76% of children with a smart phone have access to the Internet and Social Media, where children are getting negative influences online. These negative influences are seeing friends drunk, or abusing drugs on Social Media, or children are perceived a negative body image which can lead to depression, bullying and mental health issues for children.
According to a study by ChildLine, 13% of children using the internet are found to have depression or unhappiness, 11% of children are subject to cyberbullying, leaving 8% inflicting self-harm and 5% of children feeling suicidal. Many children are introduced to a
25 negative side of Web 2.0, with the dangers of the Web playing a bigger role in their development as a child rather than the educational purposes of the Web.
Dark Web
The Dark Web is a collection of websites that exist on an encrypted network which cannot be found by using a traditional search engine or by using traditional browsers. Almost all the sites on the dark web hide their identity using an encryption tool – used to hide identities and activities and used in giving the sites user a fake location.
A very popular site on the Dark Web is Silk Road – a website for the buying and selling of recreational drugs. Many people communicate through the Dark Web, using closed private websites to communicate about the outside world. In March 2015, the British Government launched a dedicated cybercrime unit to tackle the Dark Web – primarily focusing on serious crime rings and child pornography. (PCAdvisor, 2017)
Figure 9: Most purchased items on the Dark Web in 2015, according to hplusmagazine, 2015
Over the Dark Web, you can purchase anything, from hiring a hitman to severely injure or even murder another human to purchasing illegal guns, fake passports and ID’s, American Citizenship, drugs, online surgeons and even hackers.
There are disturbing sites like guides to cooking women (Metro, 2015) – what body types to use for specific female cuts, how to prepare said cuts and how to cook a woman so she lives as long as possible. Sites which encourage drug sales, from cocaine to crystal meth – delivered at a user’s convenience. The Dark Web is essentially an illegal eBay, copying their marketplace format, and using Amazon’s search and shipping features. Salesmen sell illegal products for BitCoin, an online currency, which is an encrypted currency stored online without any solid form of money like notes or coins.
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Figure 10: Silk Road’s e-commerce website, for selling drugs online.
A study by Dr Gareth Owen of the University of Portsmouth in 2014 found the most commonly requested type of content on the Dark Web was child pornography, followed by black markets, whistleblowing sites and political forums.
The encryption of information through the Dark Web is growing into a major cause for concern for the government in the twenty first century, with firmer steps being undertaken in ensuring the Dark Web is monitored and supervised accordingly. The issue here is where sites are using an encrypted form of information and website storage, authorities are struggling to monitor sites, hoping for a domain or user to slip up and finding the location of domain hosts and taking further action.
Propaganda
Propaganda is regularly utilised on the Web, with websites expressing split political views on situations, promoting over-exaggerated news stories and online recruitment systems being often used. Online propaganda is regularly used in the news, indoctrinating the public to believing something that is not fully true or may contain false information.
Propaganda has been used strategically in recruiting soldiers to fight in World War One and World War Two, used in African-American’s obtaining equal rights in the US, and used in women obtaining equal rights in 20th century Britain. However, as commonly used Propaganda was before Web 2.0, it’s now used more frequently in indoctrinating the public to ideas that are anti-sematic.
The media have always been an issue in the UK, over-exaggerating stories and happenings throughout the country encouraging split political and religious views about particular organisations and religions. Political parties have been expressing split views as to why countries are in turmoil or failing, and are using religion and war as a scapegoat – promoting their ideas online.
Again, the Dark Web is utilised in promoting split political views online. Political activists talk in forums devoted to political dissidents in many countries around the world. Oppressive governments exist everywhere around the world. Some are communist and some are guised under the mask of Islam. Such oppressive governments don’t want their citizens sharing
27 ideas or communicating ideas to overthrow the government, so much discussion is done online in encrypted form through the Dark Web.
It can be argued that the Dark Web is well utilised by political activists, providing a level of anonymity for users to communicate with one another without facing any legal consequences. However, the Dark Web is also used in recruitment to terrorist groups such as ISIS, notorious for spreading hatred, beheading victims on camera and instigating deadly terrorist attacks. Recently, an ISIS propaganda site has been uncovered on the Dark Web, floating between different domains on the Dark Web putting their propaganda on the Web to indoctrinate the public and promote anti-Semitism towards the government and its citizens.
Results and Findings
For survey analysis, see Appendix D. For full survey, see Appendix E.
Whilst gathering information for the dissertation, the use of questionnaires and gathering both qualitative and quantitative data have been beneficial in being able to gather a clear, opinionated judgement on the Web’s effect on the economy, society and industry.
The questionnaire used in gathering information contained 18 questions; a mixture of multiple choice, single choice and open-ended questions gathering opinions and feelings towards a topic.
Using a sample of participants aged 18 and over, the questionnaire has gathered information beneficial to the argument of how the Web has effected the economy, society and industry.
The participants ranged between the ages of 18 and 55+, with the sample included as follows:
18 – 25 26-35 36-45 46-55 55+ 33% 7% 22% 32% 6% Table 4: The sample of participants.
Of 100 participants, the largest sample used was participants between the age 18-25 (33%), with the second largest sample being the ages 46-55 (32%). Having participants of such a diverse age has benefitted the dissertation in being able to compare results from different generations appropriately.
The questions included for analysis in the dissertation are as follows:
28 1.
Figure 11: What do you enjoy doing most online?
Of 33 participants between the ages of 18-25, 27 participants of the sample admitted to enjoying Social Media online, this includes sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – the most dominant of the Social Media sites in their sector, whilst one participant admitted to enjoying using the Web for posting selfies. Of 32 participants between the ages of 46-55, 27 participants also admitted to enjoying Social Media online, again the more dominant sites like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram – however none admitted to using Social Media for taking selfies, something the younger generations only indulge in, since apps like Instagram and Snapchat are more directed at a younger audience.
Participants aged 26-35, 36-45 and 55+ are a smaller sample, however notable responses include some participants aged 26-35 avoid Social Media at all costs, and even have ‘no phone time’, so they can communicate with their spouse.
Participants aged 18-26 were most indicated towards using the Web for music and video purposes, with 19 participants admitting to using the Web for music, and 17 participants admitting to using the Web for video. It’s expected sites like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix are most commonly used as they are the most dominant companies in their sector.
More notably, most the sample aged over 25 enjoyed Social Media most on the Web, with 19 of 67 participants enjoying music on the Web and 11 of 67 participants enjoying videos on the Web. Of the options noted in the question, Social Media was a clear favourite of all participants, since it’s a new form of communication in Web 2.0 – with some participants even mentioning it revolutionising a new form of communication, like the telephone.
29 2.
Figure 12: How often do you use the following?
A multiple-choice question where participants ranked each platform to their frequency of use, the focus here is Social Media, Music and Videos.
Using the sample of participants aged 18-25, 24 admitted to using Social Media daily, with 34 streaming music daily, and 17 streaming videos daily. Again, the most commonly used sites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify & Netflix. Not a single participant aged 18-25 doesn’t use Social Media, Music streaming or Video streaming at all, with only 1 participant using all three platforms very rarely. Most of the 18-25-year-old participants all use the three platforms either daily or regularly. Music and Video streaming doesn’t seem to be as much of a hit for older generations however, with the majority using Social Media either daily or regularly, and streaming music and video very rarely or not at all.
According to the two questions featured so far, Social Media is the most popular platform by a landslide, being popular among all ages. Since Social Media is a new form of communication, photo sharing and even a news outlet, most participants use it daily and regularly. It has indeed revolutionised the way we communicate with one another, through the sharing of Facebook posts and tweets to posting photos to Instagram.
The next 3 questions included in the questionnaire are all open-ended, gathering opinions from participants about topics related to the Web.
3. Do you think that some people spend too much time on the Internet and does this top them form socialising?
Of 33 participants aged between 18 and 25, 28 of which thought people spend too much time on the Web which stops them from socialising. Of 7 participants aged between 26 and 35, all participants thought people spend too much time on the Web which stops them from socialising.
30 Of 22 participants aged between 35 and 45, all participants thought people spend too much time on the Web which stops them from socialising. Of 32 participants aged between 46 and 55, 29 of which thought people spend too much time on the Web which stops them from socialising. Of 6 participants aged 55+, 5 of which thought people spend too much time on the Web which stops them from socialising.
The most notable argument here is that the majority of participants who thought people used the Web too much, have all admitted to using Social Media on a daily or regular basis. This is interesting because participants have each criticised people’s use of the Web, responding with open answers admitting too much use of the Web can affect social skills, while other participants admitting they find it difficult to get conversation out of their children or spouse.
“My daughter thinks people should drop out of school so that they can be a 'YouTuber' and will then automatically be a millionaire!”
Other participants argue that although people do spend too much time on the Web, they are very sociable and will hold a conversation with ease.
It seems most of the participants all agree that the Web does affect people socially, with dominant platforms like Social Media and video streaming having a significant effect on people’s ability to socialise. Most of the sample tend to feel the same about Social Media and online gaming hindering a child’s activity and social skills, with the biggest concern their children will grow to be unsociable and awkward.
4. Do you think that the Internet is safe for children? Why?
Of 33 participants aged between 18 and 25, 20 think the Internet is unsafe for a child. Of 7 participants aged between 26 and 35, all participants think the Internet is unsafe for a child. Of 22 participants aged between 36 and 45, 15 think the Internet is unsafe for a child. Of 32 participants aged between 46 and 55, 15 thought the Internet was unsafe for a child. Of 6 participants aged 55+, 5 thought the Internet was unsafe for a child.
When the Web and children are concerned, many feel the Web is unsafe for a child – yes there are blocks and filters which can be applied to stop a child finding inappropriate information, but these filters will not block everything, however.
Many participants biggest concern regarding the Web and children is internet predators and cyber bullying. Since participants are all adults and are more than likely to have family of their own, children’s safety online is emphasised as a priority by the participants. Many participants argued that online restrictions were not strong enough and did not cover
31 enough. Inappropriate information is easily accessible on the Web, and a curious child can easily expose poor website restrictions.
“Used correctly and with parental/adult input the internet is a vital tool for learning and an effective way for children to learn and play. The internet is not safe when it is abused by individuals who use it as a vehicle with which they can cyber bully, groom or stalk vulnerable users of the internet.”
Other participants argued that the Web is safe for children, however it must be monitored and maintained regularly by parents or guardians. A child’s innocent mind can easily fall into a trap of online grooming or cyberbullying – some participants argue that children need to have adequate training to use the Web appropriately and properly.
Participants that found the Web safe for children all noted that it must have the correct safety procedures and be monitored. Many argued that Social Media sites and inappropriate games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto are easily accessible for a child under 18. Violent games that promote killing and abuse etc. are bad for a young child’s mind.
5. What are some security issues you must think about when you access the Internet?
As expected, the usual concerns associated with the Web are mentioned, like Phishing, password protection, hacking, children safety and online fraud. The biggest concern about security on the Web however is privacy. Many participants mentioned they’re concerned at how companies like Facebook, Google and Instagram gather information about their users, wondering how their information is stored and used.
Of course, companies state how information is stored, used and why its required in the privacy policy section of their terms and conditions, however not many participants will have read such a long document.
The biggest security concern for Web users aged 18 to 25 was privacy and password protection. Password protection is essential and users should not have the same password for each platform or site, as this could lead to further problems like invasion of privacy and online fraud.
Many participants are concerned with online shopping, whether the sites they were purchasing items from is a secure site which does not disclose payment or bank details to any third party or any other user. Other participants were concerned with the likes of Facebook, PayPal and Google storing payment details expressing their worry that their information can be accessed.
Many participants also expressed their concern with hacking, fearing people may gain unauthorised access to their systems or devices, with intent of wrongdoing – again this can lead to invasion of privacy and identity fraud.
32 Most participants also mentioned Phishing scams being more of an annoyance than a concern. Participants noted that it is easy to distinguish between a fake email and a legitimate email, but still expressed concern that some do look very real which is why vigilance is always required when using the Web.
Another concern for participants was child safety, with many participants expressing their fear for their children’s safety online, feeling the need for inappropriate websites to have security measures blocking children gaining access to their sites.
Final Outcome
The results gathered from the questionnaire are as expected, with the general online issues being raised. Many participants expressed how the Web is harming people socially, yet continue to use sites that promote less human interaction like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Most ages all have access to a Social Media account, with the most popular social media platform being Facebook. Almost all participants included in the sample have a Facebook account, however results may be inaccurate due to the questionnaire being promoted through Social Media. To greatly improve the accuracy of results duplicating the questionnaire but gathering samples who aren’t using Social Media may provide a different outcome.
Sampling bias may be considered an issue here, with participants usually having access to Social Media and sites alike, a duplication of the questionnaire may be required to gather accurate results.
Many participants main concern on the Web was their children. Child safety on the Web was dually noted, however their children’s futures is also a concern of the participants. Many participants felt Social Media and the Web was hindering their child’s cognitive development, leaving them socially awkward and unable to hold a proper conversation. Another concern associated with children was ease of access to inappropriate websites and exposure to online predators. Participants felt more steps should be taken in ensuring a child’s safety on the Web, beginning with parent/guardian monitoring.
Security issues that arose are expected, with many concerned that their personal information and passwords may be stolen. Participants were concerned about how their personal information is used and whether its accessible – leading to concerns about fraud and online safety.
To conclude, the stereotypical issues surrounding the Web are what brings the most concern to participants, the safety of their family and loved ones is the main priority, with many expressing security and social concerns on the Web.
33
Conclusion
Throughout the dissertation there has been the constant wonder of how Internet Monopolists and the introduction of the Web have affected the society, economy and industry, and through key research and literature the conclusions found are accurate and reasonable.
When the World Wide Web launched in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee never anticipated the winner-take-all economy that is now the Web, expecting the Web to be an online library of information, not a constant competition between money-grabbing monopolists to be the richest and most dominant Web company in the world.
Coming with the Web, is a new period of history, the Networked Computer Age, which has created new wealth, new debates, new markets and a new economy. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Web was a foundation for information - an online library. This was before the idea of Web 2.0 was launched, accessible sites with interactive data like Google and Amazon began to make changes to their sites, suiting user needs and expectations. Even before the launch of Facebook in 2004, sites were becoming increasingly populated with users – and this is only the beginning.
Since the early stages of Web 2.0, there has been major developments throughout the Web and in technology. Google are the dominant search engine, Facebook are the dominant Social Media site, Amazon control e-commerce, and each of their founders are reaping the benefits, with each respective company now being worth billions.
Web 2.0 monopolists are stopping upcoming internet evangelists from having a future with their bright ideas. Only the special ideas now make it, with the most notable Web 2.0 breakthroughs being Instagram, now owned by Facebook and Snapchat, who turned down a $3 billion cash only offer by Facebook in 2013.
“Facing decline, they do everything possible to stay in power. And that’s when the rest of us suffer.”
- Tim Wu, Wall Street Journal, 2010
The Web is indeed a monopoly, with the most dominant companies and monopolists always coming out on top, regardless of the threat to their dominance. Monopolist companies like Facebook use their reputation and fortune to stay the dominant company, buying opposition companies to remain the most dominant in their sector.
The Semantic Web remains an idea for the future. Ideas shipped by IBM, Boston Dynamics and Vicarious using robotics that interpret information like humans and intelligently generate and distribute useful content tailored for the needs of users.
34 Concern regarding the future of the Web combined with newfound inventions in technology have brought up the idea of robotics, mega-companies funding ideas like Boston Dynamics and Vicarious may be threatening the future of employability with bright ideas and innovative designs regarding robotics and the future.
Conclusions gathered include the influence of dominant Web companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon doing the utmost to stay the dominant company in their sector, by eliminating any threat to their status as dominant company be it purchasing the threatening companies or running the companies into bankruptcy.
The Importance of Research
The expectation of the research providing key information was essential in scraping the barrel for newfound information and ideas related to Internet Monopolists and the Web. Key literature like The Internet is Not the Answer, (Andrew Keen, 2015) and articles by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have been key in identifying gaps in the literature and generating new findings regarding the dissertation.
Other key literature used are articles in TIME Magazine and Financial Times and professional opinions by the likes of James Slevin, Samuel Gibbs and Tim Wu. Key information and opinions were gathered from said literature, with other literature also proving to be beneficial in finding a final solution in the dissertation.
The importance of participant input and gathering a good sample of participants is key in analysing data gathered, grasping feelings and opinions of the participants, and being able to include them in the dissertation to come to a justifiable conclusion of the monopoly that is the Web.
Gathering both quantitative and qualitative data is beneficial to the dissertation and study as it is used in measuring parameters for making comparisons between the sample. Collecting standardised and unique information provided by participants sets the barrier for future study, giving researchers and practitioners a foundation to delve deeper into the topic.
Duplication of methods is important for researchers and practitioners as results will always very. Sample bias and tendencies will influence the final outcome, and removing all potential road blocks whilst gathering information is essential, eliminating any bias and participant tendency is key in influencing accurate and valuable results.
The use of a questionnaire gaining valuable opinions and feelings regarding topics related to the Web has given the dissertation an insight into how humans feel towards the Web, with much of the feedback given positive. There were concerns however, about Web security and how secure the Web really is, and with the correct security measures the Web can be very safe.
Regarding the dissertation and related topics, recommendations include further reading. Recommended authors include Andrew Keen, where reading literature like The Cult of The
35 Amateur (2007) and The Internet is Not the Answer (2015) will enlighten researchers and practitioners into the ugly side of the Web including its constant battle between monopolists for the most dominant e-company in the world.
Other aspects of future research worth studying include conducting more questionnaires and potentially interviews regarding Web monopolists. Delving deeper into gathering valuable opinions will reflect the final outcome of the dissertation, where more justifiable conclusions can possibly be discovered.
To conclude, however Web users may look at the situation, monopolists will always be on top. It would be no surprise to see dominant companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon branch further into technology, trying to compete with other dominant companies like Microsoft and Apple. The competition between the companies are developing, with ideas being thrown around in mobile applications.
The future of Web 2.0 is mobile applications, many internet monopolists are using the popularity of the mobile phone to further enhance their dominance in their respective sectors.
In the dog-eat-dog economy that is the Web, the current monopolists are the future, they will stay dominant for decades and it would be no surprise to see mega-companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon further dominating the Web, with their founders still gaining massive recognition and fortune.
Any rival to the monopolist companies will be eliminated, securing the dominant monopolists position as the most dominant company even further into the future.
36 Bibliography
Naughton, John. A Brief History Of The Future. 1st ed. London: Phoenix, 2005. Print.
Cassidy, John. Dot.Con. 1st ed. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press, 2002. Print.
Keen, Andrew. The Internet Is Not The Answer. 1st ed. London, UK: Atlantic Books, 2015. Print.
Keen, Andrew. The Cult Of The Amateur. 1st ed. London: Nicholas Brealey Publ, 2011. Print.
Slevin, James. The Internet And Society. 1st ed. Print.
Kawasaki, Guy. Art Of Social Media, The. 1st ed. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2015. Print.
Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows. 1st ed. London: Atlantic, 2011. Print.
Frey, Carl Benedikt, and Michael Osborne. The Future Of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs To Computerisation? 1st ed. 2013. Print.
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40 Appendices
Appendix A
When undertaking a research or enterprise project, Cardiff Met staff and students are obliged to complete this form in order that the ethics implications of that project may be considered. If the project requires ethics approval from an external agency (e,g., NHS), you will not need to seek additional ethics approval from Cardiff Met. You should however complete Part One of this form and attach a copy of your ethics letter(s) of approval in order that your School has a record of the project. The document Ethics application guidance notes will help you complete this form. It is available from the Cardiff Met website. The School or Unit in which you are based may also have produced some guidance documents, please consult your supervisor or School Ethics Coordinator. Once you have completed the form, sign the declaration and forward to the appropriate person(s) in your School or Unit. PLEASE NOTE: Participant recruitment or data collection MUST NOT commence until ethics approval has been obtained. PART ONE Name of applicant: Connor Boyd Supervisor (if student project): Dr Chaminda Hewage School / Unit: Cardiff School of Management Student number (if applicable): ST20062729 Programme enrolled on (if applicable): BSc (Hons) Software Engineering Project Title: “The Internet: Since its early release, it’s become a huge part of our everyday lives. How has it previously affected lives and how will it continue to affect our futures?” Expected start date of data collection: 15/12/2016 Approximate duration of data collection: 3-4 weeks Funding Body (if applicable): None Another researcher(s) working on the None project: Will the study involve NHS patients or staff? No
Will the study involve taking samples of No human origin from participants?
41 Does your project fall entirely within one of the following categories: Paper based, involving only documents in No the public domain Laboratory based, not involving human No participants or human tissue samples Practice based not involving human No participants (eg curatorial, practice audit) Compulsory projects in professional practice No (eg Initial Teacher Education) A project for which external approval has No been obtained (e.g., NHS) If you have answered YES to any of these questions, expand on your answer in the non-technical summary. No further information regarding your project is required. If you have answered NO to all of these questions, you must complete Part 2 of this form
In no more than 150 words, give a non-technical summary of the project A research of the internet and its general influence on the future and its current influence. I’ll be considering the effect it’s had on different aspects of society and what impact it has had on businesses/schools/stock markets etc. Questionnaires will be undertaken gathering different opinions on the internet from different age groups, giving a balanced argument to pros and cons of internet. Qualitative and quantitative data will be gathered during these methods. All data will remain confidential and participants will be informed of this, gathered data will be stored on my password protected personal device.
DECLARATION: I confirm that this project conforms with the Cardiff Met Research Governance Framework
I confirm that I will abide by the Cardiff Met requirements regarding confidentiality and anonymity when conducting this project.
STUDENTS: I confirm that I will not disclose any information about this project without the prior approval of my supervisor. Signature of the applicant: Date:
Connor Boyd 16/11/2016
FOR STUDENT PROJECTS ONLY Name of supervisor: Date:
Signature of supervisor:
42
Research Ethics Committee use only
Decision reached: Project approved Project approved in principle Decision deferred Project not approved Project rejected Project reference number: Click here to enter text. Name: Click here to enter text. Date: Click here to enter a date. Signature:
Details of any conditions upon which approval is dependant: Click here to enter text.
PART TWO A RESEARCH DESIGN A1 Will you be using an approved protocol in your No project? A2 If yes, please state the name and code of the approved protocol to be used1 None A3 Describe the research design to be used in your project I will be conducting questionnaires using people around my local area. All data will be kept in organised tables and forms. Participants include family, friends and friends of friends and I will be given their consent to undertake the questionnaires. Participants will be between the ages of 18-70 so a balanced amount of data can be gathered. Their questionnaire results will be kept anonymous with only their answers being shown. Other information gathered will be via reading/online. Primary information gathering will be used through books and external reading. The type of data I will be gathering includes quantitative and qualitative with the bulk of information gathered via questionnaires. A4 Will the project involve deceptive or covert research? No A5 If yes, give a rationale for the use of deceptive or covert research
1 An Approved Protocol is one which has been approved by Cardiff Met to be used under supervision of designated members of staff; a list of approved protocols can be found on the Cardiff Met website here
43 None A6 Will the project have security sensitive implications? No A7 If yes, please explain what they are and the measures that are proposed to address them None
B PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE B1 What previous experience of research involving human participants relevant to this project do you have? None B2 Student project only What previous experience of research involving human participants relevant to this project does your supervisor have? Dr Chaminda Hewage has over 15 years previous experience involving human participants.
C POTENTIAL RISKS C1 What potential risks do you foresee? 1. Not meeting submission deadline. 2. Participants may have concerns over the confidentiality of their data. 3. Participants may have concerns about the loss of their data. 4. Questionnaires may not be completed accurately. 5. Inaccurate data may skew results. C2 How will you deal with the potential risks? 1. Research schedule in place to keep on top of work. 2. Participants are made aware that 3. Participants are assured of anonymity at all times. 4. Ensure all questionnaires are completed properly. 5. Ensure all data is gathered properly and all responses are accurate.
When submitting your application, you MUST attach a copy of the following: All information sheets Consent/assent form(s) An exemplar information sheet and participant consent form are available from the Research section of the Cardiff Met website.
44 Appendix B
45 Appendix C
Title of Project: “The Internet: Since its early release, it’s become a huge part of our everyday lives. How has it previously affected lives and how will it continue to affect our futures?
Please take some time to read through the following information.
What’s required You will be required to complete either a short interview and/or a questionnaire based on the title proposed above. Your answers in both the interview/questionnaire will be kept anonymous and confidential, and the interview and/or questionnaire will be done at your convenience, around Christmas 2016.
Your role The questionnaire will be brief and relative to the project title. Questions asked will be a mixture of Yes/No answers and other questions will require you to give a slightly more detailed answer. Whilst answers will be kept anonymous, it will be very beneficial to myself for you to provide answers as opinionated as possible. The interview will last around 15-30 minutes, with questions asked requiring a more detailed answer than the questionnaire. Voices will be recorded for research purposes and all answers given will be kept anonymous. Opinionated answers reflecting on personal experiences with the questions provided will again be beneficial to myself. Near the end of the interview you will be asked to reflect on your experience using the Internet be it within business or for recreational purposes.
Your Data For the purposes of enhancing the accuracy of the data gathered from the interview session, audio will be recorded but answers kept anonymous. Gathered data will be stored accordingly and properly, with your privacy taken into great consideration. Should you not wish to take part in either the interview/questionnaire or both, you may opt out. Prior to the interview and questionnaires taking place, you will again be reminded of the information above.
For More Information Please contact the primary researcher, Connor Boyd at [email protected] You may also contact the supervisor of the course, Catherine Tryfona at [email protected]
46 Appendix D
How I approached gathering data for each question, and sorted the information gathered by age.
47
Full responses for Question 4: What do you enjoy doing most online?
Full responses for Question 5: How often do you use the following?
48 Appendix E
49
50
51
52
53