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Chapter Four In this chapter we will examine the results of the qualitative and quantitative data collected. Firstly, quantitative results will be presented and discussed. Following that qualitative findings will be analysed.
4.1 The questionnaires included questions on age, sex, nationality, marital status to give a general overview of who uses Caithness Community web site. It also asked questions which provided information on where a user logs on to visit the site, how often they do this, and which particular areas they are mostly interested in. Before the questionnaires were completed I expected users to be predominantly residents of Caithness aged between 21 and 30. I also expected people to mainly log onto the site to take place in community discussions and check up on local activities/information. The questionnaire was posted on the web-site for three weeks where users were invited to fill it in, thus participation is purely voluntary. As it was only posted for three weeks the sample is time specific, therefore cannot be representative of every member who uses the web site. However, it can provide an overview of enthusiastic members. There were 82 completed questionnaires returned to me in this time. Ultimately the questionnaires were designed to prove the hypothesis that people who contact the web site do so for recreational reasons, and continue to do so. Thus, enhancing social capital: networks of trust, friendship, and shared interests. Out of a sample of 82 respondents the percentage of males and females who use the site is close. Male users account for 50.8%, while female users account for 49.2%. Therefore, one can state the site is of equal interest to men and women. Marital status results were disregarded, as this did not appear as a factor affecting how often people used the site or what they used it for. The majority of people, however, are married - 71 out of 82 respondents. The nationality of community members is problematic. As the Internet is world-wide people of any nationality could become members, therefore the box is open for people to type their nationality. Many British people have entered their nationality as ‘Scottish’. The results illustrate ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’ as separate nationalities, however, these can be combined and counted simply as British. What is important is that the results show that British members make up the majority of users in this specific sample.
Figure 4.1: Nationality of Users n = 82
The figures here show that the majority of users are Scottish. This is important as it shows people are taking an interest in their local community or at least their country. Showing an interest in an area is one of the first steps to increase social capital. The web site offers information and interaction for all community members, encompassing all age groups. This includes kid’s pages, educational opportunities, and information on pensioner clubs. Taking into account the Internet is a fairly new phenomena I expect the lowest participation to be from people aged 65 and above. As computing and new technologies are encouraged at school and in further education, I expect highest participation levels to come from the age groups 16-21 and 21-30. However, the data shows the mean within this variable to be users aged 30-45. Generally, it could be presumed that this age group have the financial resources to own a personal computer, and have the greatest interest in community politics.
Figure 4.2: Respondents age groups n = 82 This graph also shows high numbers of users between the age groups 21-30 and 45-65. The percentages for this variable showed that 50% of respondents were aged between 30-45. For categories 21-30 and 45-65 both had 20.7%, that is 17 out of 82 respondents. The categories under 16 and 16-21 represented in total 6 out of 82 responses. Also, only one user aged above 65 responded. These findings show that certain members of the population are not as interested in, or cannot utilise this technology. These are the groups that should be targeted in any marketing or new developments. Analysis of how frequently users logged onto the site showed that 50% logged on everyday and 24.4% more than once a week. These statistics show that site members are predominantly made up of people who visit most frequently. Reading these statistics interpretatively it is possible to deduct that the site provides topics that people are interested in pursuing on a regular basis.
Figure 4.3: How frequently users contact the site n = 82 The most important qualitative data comes from the question: ‘What do you mainly log on for?’ The possible answers coincide with the options presented when primary contact with the site’s home page is made. Taking into account there is general news on the front page some people may not enter the site, this automatically excludes some users. However, it is the frequent visitors with specific interests that I am interested in, these are the people who make this network a ‘community’. There is an option of ‘other’ in this question as only the main sectors of the site are stated. The message board and recreational use of the site is an option I hope to be popular, alongside ‘Local Information/Community Activities’. These options are purely recreational, hence people using these sectors are interested in the local area and communicating with others. This interaction of people with shared interests can build social networks, in turn building social capital. Social capital can only be increased when people take an active interest in the community, according to this data people are taking an active interest in Caithness community. Figure 4.4: Reasons users log on n = 82
As people were encouraged to include all the reasons they frequently log on for the figures cannot be presented as percentages. However, it can be concluded that the majority of people are interested in local information and community activities either alone, or in conjunction with other topics. The final variable in the questionnaire was ‘Log-on’. I am interested in where people log on from because, according theories on Community Networks, limited access for users can encourage social exclusion. A popular solution to this problem is to make network access available from public portals. Therefore those who do not own a PC can be involved in and contribute to the community network. “In order to enhance local self determination community nets should provide affordable access for all” (Morino, 1999) Internet access is available in schools and in public libraries in both Wick and Thurso. Also, many businesses have Internet access. The options in this survey were: ‘Home’, ‘Work’, ‘College/School’, or ‘Library’. The option ‘Work’ may present errors as respondents may not admit to using a recreational web site during business hours. The results of this question did not coincide with the theory that people who do not own a PC log onto this site. Responses to work, college/school, and libraries, were very low. The majority of visitors from this sample logged on from home, 64 out of 82 users. An open question was included in the questionnaire for those wishing to participate further. Respondents were asked to rate the site, describing what they thought of it compared with others. Answers were very positive and some people offered suggestions for future developments. Answers such as: “One of the best community sites I’ve visited” and “The site itself is very well linked to other sites and also the site itself is logically set up and easy to access” were common. Many respondents included additional information about why they enjoyed being a member of Caithness community web site. This has led to an additional finding that most respondents are originally from, or have family ties with the county Caithness, yet no longer live there. This was often described as: “Keeps me in touch with home” or “a way to ease homesickness”. Extended answers to this question include: “I’m from Caithness originally and like to see how the area is doing” “Keeps me up to date with some of the happenings/activities in my home country” “After living in Florida for the past 15 years this site brings me right back home” From this open question 19.5% of respondents included that they are ex-patriots, although I suspect there are many more not identified. These responses illustrate Caithness community web pages as a global community made up of people who identify Caithness as ‘home’. As most people do not live in the county of Caithness they network online, thus establishing Caithness community web pages as a ‘Community Network’. Conclusion Throughout the analysis of quantitative data it has been concluded that the majority of Caithness community web site members are aged thirty to forty-five, have Internet access at home, log on everyday for local information, and do not live in Caithness. We must then ask the question: Why are so many people interested in fostering a community in which they do not geographically belong? Answers to this can be found if we refer back to the literature. Graham (1995:5) explains that community, regardless of space, is a necessary part of human interaction. Also, Castells (1996) reinforces this idea by suggesting that belonging to a community provides individuals with some form of identity. Which, in his opinion, is necessary to give people a source of meaning (1996:2). Thus, we can conclude, it is not purely geographical ties that foster this community, but a network of individuals who identify with the area and one-another. The following section analyses the qualitative data collected, highlighting issues and generating questions.
Qualitative data collection in this study takes place through participant observation and conversations, as well as structured interviews. The aim of my qualitative data collection is to gain insight into attitudes and ambitions of both users and facilitators. Throughout qualitative data collection with users I refer to social capital as: friendship, and a ‘sense of community spirit’. With facilitators I describe social capital as:’ integration through networks of trust’ and ask for their interpretations and opinions. I log onto Caithness Community web pages as a user every day examining daily changes and observing the posted messages. Recently a ‘chat room’ has been added to the site which I have been participating in. However, the chat room is problematic as there is no real structure and conversation is often confused. The messages I have observed fall into two broad categories. People who live in Caithness discussing local politics and community issues, and people who have personal links with the Caithness area. The people who have links with the area range from students studying elsewhere, to people who are tracing relatives or ancestors. When participating in conversations via the message board I openly state I am researching who uses the forum, and why people are interested in Caithness Community. The majority of people I have had contact with are people who once lived in Caithness and are keen to maintain ties with friends in the area. Pictures of the area are updated regularly, these give expatriates a feeling of closeness with ‘home’. Other users who do not live in Caithness have recently visited the area and like to re-visit via the Internet. “Hi, I was born and raised in Thurso, Caithness...emigrated to Canada 19
years ago but I love to keep in touch”. “After visiting Caithness with my boyfriend last year I log
on everyday to see how the area is doing” The conversations with the users provided useful information which backed-up ideas and expectations, however, these proved very difficult to record. The main points illustrated by the users were feelings of belonging and maintaining friendships. “The site is like a link back home as it were, I still class Thurso as my
home. I return about once or twice a year and instead of saying I’m going on
holidays, I say I’m going home. So I always keep an eye on the web site to see pictures and names I
recognise”. Most of my conversations take place via email with the main web site facilitator, Bill Fernie. Through these conversations my ideas on community networking have been developed and many theoretical concerns have been illustrated. “Conversation is a basic mode of human interaction…. Through conversations we get to know other people, get to learn about their experiences, feelings, and hopes and the world they live in” (Kvale, 1996:5) With Bill Fernie conversations were based around the aims and practicalities of maintaining a community web site. The mission of this site is to try and do something for everyone. I asked Bill to describe Caithness Community web site to me: “The web site is now a community spread across the globe. It has and is uniting people with an interest in or from Caithness not just people who live here. The community is now anyone with any interest whatsoever in the county and yet it is extending beyond that. We will be introducing video - more audio - local poetry -
the list is endless and as we keep moving to the next item people are a bit open
mouthed at what they will find next.” Most of Bill’s ideas come from his visit to a big community web site in New York, he has more ideas than is physically possible to complete. Some of the key things he learned from his trip to New York were; update the site as often as you can with something, no matter how small, produce as many pictures as you can get on the pages, and provide a database of local information. Topics Bill Fernie and I have discussed mainly center around the expense of running the community web pages. The site is well maintained and easy to access, provides extensive knowledge on all aspects of life in Caithness and beyond. It also provides a network of friendship, activities, and support. These positive aspects of the web site are what keeps it running, however, costs are increasingly difficult to meet. The site receives no funding and is created and maintained by volunteer’s working mainly from their own homes. Bill Fernie expresses his concerns with the future of the site: “I detect in many of the community web sites, whether large
or small, that there is often one or two individuals doing the largest part of
the work or leading the web site… Most community web sites are controlled by
individuals .They do not belong to the local community and often contribute
nothing to them financially as is the case with Caithness.org I and many other
web masters have borne the cost of the web site and ownership resides with them.
I do not know how all this will turn out in any area least of all Caithness” Another interesting point that came out of our conversations was Bill’s view on public access to the web site. Many authors, such as Putnam (2000) and Schuler (1996), state that to overcome information rich/poor divides Internet access should be available in libraries and village halls. Bill Fernie’s views directly contradict this. This conflict of theory versus practice is an example of how my understanding of community networks has evolved through my observations. Bill Fernie states; “My view is that the people who already go to libraries
will be the people who make use of the Internet facilities. I have also seen
many projects developing to put more computers into various places…I think it
would be more productive to make sure that every household with young children
in rural and deprived areas has Internet access in the home” As I have been researching Caithness community web site I have witnessed it undergo many changes. Wellman (1997) refers to the life-span of community networks, asking whether they had a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Looking over my correspondence it is clear to see there is a distinct structure in the web sites life span. It began struggling to get equipment and involve facilitators, over two years established itself as a community web site and fostered a new community. Now with no funding it is changing into a business to cover costs. The official Business Launch date is the 1st May 2001, then the community network becomes profit making. Thus raising the question: Can a Community Network also be a business? “I am now trying to turn the web site into a business to
make it have a long term future. It has all happened very fast. We have no
funding and if I cannot do it within 6 months to a year I will probably have
to cease - at least at the level of commitment I now give it. It is a bit
of a struggle as I do think it will be the future but maybe not mine. We
may be too early and as with many businesses it is not always the early ones
that survive - see dotcoms. I think the ideas of many of them are correct
but they just went too soon. Time will tell if we did also.” The proposed business model includes:
I asked Bill to define what an access guide is. He described it as a guide to the facilities in the area for disabled people, essentially a guide covering all sorts of places people might want to go. Bill’s idea is to build it gradually on the web site and make changes as they arise. This idea will create a rise in disabled users on the site and visitors to Caithness. Through expanding interests the site is including more people, leading to new community members and increased social inclusion. During our correspondence I asked Bill whether he could define what he viewed Caithness Community Web Site as, in function and as a product? “The Caithness Community web site in function is growing in being one of the most powerful mechanisms in the area for communicating with the local population. It is almost instant, it is cheap to run - it has a long reach. It is already competing with the local newspaper in terms of readership. The product is Caithness - its people, the place, the lot. We have and are becoming part sales, part advertising, part marketing, part testbed for new ideas ...I have for the last year seen that it could be the biggest
and most powerful medium in the north of Scotland for communication. Once a few
others understand it we will see a lot more but they will need commitment and
understanding in a lot of sectors. “ In conclusion I asked what the future holds for Caithness Community web site? The reply was that it appears to be time to leave the community web site and evolve into a business. This seems the only way the web site can have a future. Fortunately, Caithness community web site has already been established as a community online and the business will continue to subsidise this for as long as possible. When asked what is needed to accomplish the creation of a new community, the reply was simple: “Like so many other things it has been a mixture of
determination, long hours and having the right people at the right time” This method of data collection provided me with an in-depth understanding into the role of Caithness Community Network from the viewpoint of both site visitors and facilitators. The observations made on the chat-page and message boards gave me the overall feeling of a ‘playful’ informal atmosphere where people were fostering friendships and maintaining ties with Caithness. However, conversations with the facilitators were more serious. The frustration is apparent as this revoluntionary idea to promote a community both locally and globally is struggling due to lack of funding. A major problem with this unstructured data is the quantity. I received vast quantities of emails on my subject, being selective was extremely difficult. Therefore, I concluded my qualitative data by carrying out structured interviews with those directly involved in the web site. Interviews Structured interviews were created to gain an insight into other volunteers theories and also gain specific answers to questions I deemed most important. Originally, the research plan included interviews with facilitators of other community web pages. These would be analysed to discover whether experiences at Caithness were universal or unique. However, in practice this was unsuccessful. After many failed attempts contacting other web sites I decided not to pursue comparative interviewing. ‘Interviews are traditionally analysed as more or less
accurate descriptions of experience; as reports or representations of
reality’ Due to a lack of comparative data Silverman’s above method of interview analysis is applied. The interview results will be regarded as accurate illustrations of the experiences involved in facilitating and maintaining a community web site. Questions one to four inquired into; the specific role of each ‘webmaster’, how long they have held this position, how they originally became involved in the site, and how it has developed since their arrival. These questions gave me an overview of what kind of people become involved in this type of project. All respondents combine technical ability, motivation and an interest in the local community. Expanding on the previous questions, question five asked: ‘What do you personally get out of being involved in such a project?’ Volunteers get a personal sense of achievement, they encourage and get involved with community campaigns, most feel like they ‘give something back’ to the community. One respondent simply stated he was “in it for the glory”. Question six asked what the most important aspect of the web site is? Replies included: Site is run purely for the community Aims include; connecting people, giving individuals a ‘voice’, educating people, trying to do something for everyone who gets in touch, to bring the community together. Ex-pats can connect with relatives/home, there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of visitors from overseas. It is a resource mainly for locals, locals are proud of the site, seen as a community ‘focal point’, “The site has an excellent reputation for its quality, even when the area does not!” The site brings easy access to knowledge and information on the county, the site puts Caithness ‘on the map’. The remaining questions concentrated on feelings of ‘community’ and ‘identity’ and whether the webmasters felt these feelings had been enhanced among the users. These are more difficult to analyse as the interviewee’s interpret these feelings differently. Answers to these questions were positive illustrating that the web site empowers the local community, giving them a voice and freedom of expression. The site thrives on individuals submitting announcements, photographs, and anecdotal information. A feeling of community is fostered through frequent contact between users and facilitators. People interested in Caithness gain a sense of ‘identity’ through being involved in the daily issues and activities that go on in the county. However, these are mainly people who do not live in the area. The volunteers state they would like to see changes in residents negative attitudes towards the area, and would like to see more local people involved in the site as both users and facilitators. They acknowledge the site needs to draw teenagers, young adults, and old people. This is incorporated into future aims for the site. Other key issues that arose surround methods of funding as a constant worry and threat. Also, one interesting answer states: “A global community is enhanced by this kind of site, not necessarily a local one” This suggests that the network is not expected to enhance the local community, but contribute to a global community. This is especially interesting because findings so far have found that Caithness community web site has created a new virtual community, and is more significant to outsiders rather than local residents. However, from conversations with other facilitators, and through some of the literature, it is apparent that the primary function of a Community Network is to enhance social capital within the local community. Perhaps, in pursuing the phenomena of community networks to enhance local communities, indirectly a global community has been created. This global community consists of individuals who are concerned in the activities and well-being of an area they affiliate with. Community networks, therefore, do enhance social capital through creating new communities bound together by trust, common interests, and a freedom of expression. In conclusion, the interviews consolidate views on the purpose of the web site. That is, the site is run purely for the community. It aims to connect people, give people a voice, and bring the community together. Answers outline the concerns for social capital in the local community, and illustrate the contribution the web site makes to the area. There appears to be a genuine concern to enhance ‘community spirit’, in both a local and global community. Overall, the qualitative data illustrates the effect the web site has on people. This could not have been achieved through purely quantitative results. Through the combination of methods it appears unanimous that this community web site is a voluntary project to empower those who use it. It has both practical and personal functions. It gives local people a bulletin board of the latest community information and interesting facts, it also gives those from outside the area a window into Caithness. The qualitative data presented interesting findings, ranging from the reasons people visit the site, the feelings they get through visiting the site, the reasons behind setting up such a project, to the potential for the web site as both a communication medium and online community. The final chapter brings together the main issues presented through the reviewed literature and analysed data and begins to draw conclusions. |
