Latest from Internet & American Life Project

Thanks to Andy Carvin information about the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project is now available.

The report focuses on home broadband access in the United States
and who's posting content to the Internet. Broadband access is up
across the board, with middle income family access growing at the
fastest rate. English-speaking Latinos are now almost as likely (41%) to
have broadband at home as white families (42%), while African American
families lag a bit behind (31%). Income and education levels continue to
remain major barriers, though growth was seen at all levels. DSL access
has become more affordable, though many more households cite speed as
their reason for getting broadband (57%) compared to the lowering of
cost (3%), suggesting that more people are willing to pay for it in
order to gain the benefits of high-speed access.

The most interesting part of the report focuses on online
content publishing. Overall, 35% of Internet users - 48 million people -
have posted content to the Internet. Broadband users are more likely to
post online content than dialup users - 42% versus 27%. This is
especially true of bloggers and people who manage their own websites.
While an average of eight percent of Internet users publish their own
blog, 11% of broadband users had blogs, compared to only four percent of
dialup users. And interestingly, lower-income users were a bit more likely
to post content online than higher-income users, while whites _lagged_
behind African Americans and English-speaking Latinos - 32%, 39% and 42%
respectively.