Motives, hurdles, and dropouts

This article highlights the range of services that are becoming available via Internet, and the equity implications if certain segments of the populations are excluded from them. The issue becomes increasingly urgent as more governmental functions become available through the World Wide Web and Internet. In late 1995 a survey of 2,500 Americans was conducted to understand their use or non-use of the online world. The questions that were of interest in the survey were like: What are the demographic characteristics of users compared to non-users? What motives might people have for using the Internet? How are users introduced to the Internet, and where do they seek support. What are the barriers to Internet usage? Results suggest that while the race/ethnicity divide among users and non-users who are aware of the Internet is not highly significant, there continues to be income, education and gender differentials. And, perhaps most disturbingly, there appears to be prominent racial/ethnic divide between respondents who were aware of the Internet and those who were not