The Internet at Home: Expectations, Realities, and the Future

            Sara Kiesler, Carnegie Mellon University

             4-5:30pm Tuesday 3/30 in 205 South Hall

The Internet could change commerce and the lives of average citizens as
much as did the telephone in the early part of the 20th century and
television in the 1950s and 1960s. HomeNet is a Carnegie Mellon research
project studying what families do with the Internet and how it is changing
their lives. From 1995-1998, a field study examined over 100 Pittsburgh
households representing a wide range of demographics. The HomeNet project
provided participants with computer equipment, subsidized access to the
Internet and training in using both their computers and the Internet.
Through detailed, ongoing questionnaires
and electronic data collection, the HomeNet project team studied Internet
usage and its effects on participants' lives. This presentation will review
the major findings of the study, and touch on some new results from
additional samples.  The HomeNet results bear on questions for the future
such as what will motivate or discourage new technologies in the home
(e.g., home networks).