The Digital City, A study into the backgrounds and opinions of its residents Paper presented at the Canadian Community Networks Conference August 15-17, 1994 Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Kees Schalken (c.a.t.schalken@kub.nl) Pieter Tops (p.e.w.m.tops@kub.nl) Faculty of Law Department of public administration Tilburg University Netherlands(1) Introduction The Netherlands has gained a new city. With the delivery of an E-mail message to American Vice-Presi- dent Gore, Amsterdam's alderman de Grave declared the Digital City officially open on January the 15th, 1994. The Digital City has no geographical location on the map of the Netherlands (Internet), it is in fact a computer, connected to a worldwide network of computers, and thus forming a 'virtual community'. Everything which happens in this virtual community happens just like in the real world, albeit digital- ly. The 'city' metaphor is sustained in order to describe what happens there. The Digital City has been developed through the co-operation of the pol- itical and cultural centre de Balie in Amsterdam and 'Hacktic Network', a foundation originating from the world of computer activists. The city has been set up according to the model of so-called 'Freenets', which were set up in the United States in the mid-eighties. Familiar examples of such Freenet-systems are the Cleveland Community Computer System, the Denver Free- net (both in the United States) and the National Capital Freenet (Ottawa, Canada). These digital communities, just like the Digital City in Amsterdam, can be accessed in three different ways: via a Personal Computer with a modem connec- tion, via Internet, or via various public terminals set up in the city. In Amsterdam these public ter- minals are available at the City Museum, the Public Library, de Balie and the Flessenman Centre for the Aged. The Digital City has attracted a lot of attention in the press. Detailed coverage in the national and local newspapers and opinion magazines, and attention from NOS News, the VPRO (a national broadcasting association) and even the music station MTV-Europe, have made the Digital City familiar to the public in virtually no time. Hence the overwhelming interest in participation in the project during its initial phase, the 20 modem lines made available in the first week were apparently insufficient. Even after cutting back the 'login time' from an hour to half an hour and hastily laying extra telephone lines, the waiting period for connection to the Digital City remained considerable (200 re-dials before making contact was apparently no exception). Reporters were quick to react with talk of 'traffic congestion' in the Digi- tal City. A few figures give an indication of the interest in the project. Within ten weeks there were 13,000 inhabitants registered in the Digital City. Next to this there is a large number of tourists who regularly visit the city as 'guests'. The city is approached roughly 1,700 times a day. The total number of 'logins' has easily passed the 150,000 mark. Thus the Digital City in its starting phase, in a quantitative sense at least, already seems to be a success. The initiators of the Digital City originally set up the system as a ten weeks experiment. Because of this initial short-time period the system would have been online, not a lot of thought has been given to the organisational-structure of the city. The philosophy of the initiators was that no elaborate plans delin- eating the Digital City's future would be formulated. In a bottom-up approach a form has been chosen in which both inhabitants and services can work together in designing the city. The unexpected success of the Digital City has led to continued subsidation by the Amsterdam council and the national ministries of Economic and Internal Affairs. The continuation of the experiment is thus guaranteed until at least the end of 1994. Now that continuation of the experiment is secured, the demand for a more specific structure for the future arises. A number of topics are being discussed by initiators and inhabitants of the Digital City. How is democracy to be ensured within the Digital City? At this moment the initiators act as a self appointed city-management but citizens are debating the desirability of an elected management. Other questions concern the structure of the process of decision-making, the financial recourses of the system when government funds will be no longer avail- able, and the drafting of a user-agreement. Map of the City A look at the main menu of the Digital City shows us the possibilities it has to offer. THE DIGITAL CITY 1 HELP 2 Post Office 3 Public Forum 4 Library 5 Art and Culture Building 6 Town Hall 7 Office District 8 Electoral Centre 9 Kiosk 10 A Plaza 11 University of Amsterdam 12 Central Station 13 Configuration Centre In the Digital City there is a post office where you can send and receive electronic mail; a central station where world travel via Internet (the world's fastest growing international data network with an estimated 20 million users) can be accom- plished within a few minutes; a plaza with cafes where you can meet friends in Japan, the United States or just locally via the IRC (Internet-Relay- Chat); and there is an office district where informa- tion can be obtained from non-governmental organisations of such diverse plumage as the Anne Frank Foundation or the anarchistic Nomen Nescio. In the town hall connections have been laid between political parties, the personal workplaces of civil servants and two municipal data files: the public information system PIGA and the administrative infor- mation system BISA. Within these systems information can be directly accessed by means of search keys. The information files available in the Digital City are frequently consulted. The Administrative information system, for example, was consulted 8,000 times in the first ten weeks according to the login-scripts. Besides various possibilities for seeking and finding information, the Digital City also offers a variety of discussion platforms under the subject headings like 'Schiphol and its extensions', 'Construction and Demolition in Amsterdam', and 'Crime'. The stimula- tion of public debate has always been one of the most important objectives in the design of the Digital City. This is why the choice was made to carry out the experiment during the period before and after the local government elections of march 2, 1994. The various discussion platforms are attended to differ- ing degrees. In particular, the discussions under the headings 'Technopolis' (a discussion about the rela- tionship between information technology and democ- racy), 'racism and the multicultural city' and the platform about the Digital City itself, attract a considerable group of about 60 participants who regularly contribute to the discussion. A discussion worth mentioning in the 'racism and the multicultural city' forum has arisen between several inhabitants of the Digital City and an inhabitant who made public a preference for the Centre Democrats (an extreme right-wing political party) in the local elections. It was for the first time that a public debate was held between supporters and opponents of the CD; the absence of physical presence in an electronic dis- cussion no doubt was a critical condition that initi- ated the event. The following passage, in which the above mentioned CD voter betrays the level of protest in his voice, gives an impression of the discussion: "I can't imagine a more obvious sign then vote CD, that things can't go on like this any longer. Of course I know all the objec- tions to the CD. If I knew for certain that they would gain power, then I would NEVER vote for them. But I'm assuming that won't happen. That's why I'm willing to take the risk." Democracy in the Digital City: Orwell or Athens? The Digital City offers something for everyone: information, communication, amusement and even possi- bilities for entering into social relationships. The 'experimental ' character of the Digital City remains prominent here. Many applications have still to crystallize, and many questions remain for the pres- ent unanswered. Nonetheless, the Digital City offers a possibility of asking these questions, which are above all topical in terms of the relationship between information- and communication- technology and democratic decision making . Two normative scenarios are often central in con- siderations about the influence of new forms of information- and communication-technology. The first of these is the Athenian Agora scenario, in which information technology makes the dream of direct democracy come true. Technology often bears the promise for new forms of democratic structures of decision-making. A promise of direct democracy, a promise of breaking through the dominant hierarchic structures in the political system, a promise of new and attractive forms of participation: The technology that makes virtual commun- ities possible has the potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost- intellectual lever- age, social leverage, commercial leverage, and most importantly political leverage [..] The political significance of CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) lies in its capacity to challenge the existing political hierachy's monopoly on powerful communications media and perhaps thus revi- talize citizen-based democracy(2). The second scenario is that of an electronic revol- ution which culminates in Orwellian forms of monitor- ing and control. The development of electronic net- works enhances the possibility to collect and match personal data. Eventually this may lead to a permanent electronic surveillance of citizens' behaviour and a severe intrusion of their rights on privacy. Moreover, in this Orwellian scenario democracy will become a push- button democracy in which the activities of citizens are reduced to pushing a button or filling a ques- tionnaire. The domination of these two big scenarios- with all their ideological baggage- has in itself been an obstruction to the carrying out of more empirical re- search of the relationships between democracy and the information society (3). The Digital City offers for the Netherlands an opportunity to try to end this 'deadlock' by studying the working of information technology on democratic institutions. Citizen review survey in the Digital City Although The Digital City was enthusiastically received, as appears by the attention in the press and the unexpected high number of participants, the first question one must ask is who the people are that inhabit the city. It is often said that new electronic media like the Digital City only attract certain individuals. In this view the Digital City is mainly considered as a toy for 'technojunks' and 'cyberpunks'. To answer this question the authors, together with the management and initiators of The Digital City, conducted a so called 'the first digi- tal citizen review survey'. In april and the first week of May 1994 an option 'questionnaire' was added to the main menu of The Digital City. After choosing this option one was informed about the objectives of the questionnaire and one could decide to cooperate (every inhabitant could only fill in the questionnaire once). The questionnaire is enclosed in appendix 2. 1,197 Inhabitants filled in the questionnaire com- pletely. Due to the fact that this kind of electronic research is not often conducted, it is difficult to assess the representativity of the sample, but we have no reason to assume that a specific group of inhabitants did not fill in the questionnaire. A comparison with the official 'users-file' could give a decisive answer on the representativity issue, but at this moment this information is not yet available. The citizen review survey is the first phase in a more comprehensive research in which the citizens are asked about their use of the system by e-mail, and in which personal interviews with citizens, city-man- agers and real life Amsterdam council-members, civil servants and business executives will be carried out. In the next section we will study the results of the citizen review survey. Citizen review survey in the Digital City: inhabit- ants, activities and opinions 1. Sex In a discussion in dds.misc (under the subject 'women') about the sex of the Digital City's resi- dents, it has already been established that very few women are present. A press of the 'w' key, which produces a list of the 'on-line residents', reveals only a few feminine first names. The city citizen review survey confirms this with the convincing figures from table 1. Table 1: Sex (N=1192) Male 91.0% Female 9.0% No less than 91 percent of the city-residents is male. The general image has always been that information- and communication-technology is a man's world, but the masculine majority in the Digital City is still overwhelming. These kind of new forms of electronic media apparently mostly attract men. The low figure of female users in the Digital City seems to be an overall problem in cyberspace. Esti- mates on female participation on American Internet- providers as Compuserve or America Online show a similar image: only 10 to 15 percent of the users are female(4). 2.Age. The Digital City is a young city, not only in terms of the city itself, but also the age of its inhabit- ants. Table 2 reveals around 58 percent of the resi- dents to be thirty years old or younger. The youngest resident claims to have been born in 1986 (8 years old thus, or was it a typing error?). 38 percent of the inhabitants can be found in the 31-50 age catego- ry. Older people are strongly under-represented in the city. Only 3.4 percent of the residents are over fifty. The oldest resident in the survey registers 1918 as the year of birth (a respectable 76 years of age). Table 2: AGE (N=1174) 8-18 years 5.9% 19-25 years 29.0% 25-30 years 23.3% 31-35 years 15.7% 36-40 years 10.9% 41-50 years 11.8% 51 years and older 3.4% 3. Place of residence The Digital City has primarily been set up for the Amsterdam region. The public and administrative information systems for the municipality of Amsterdam can be found in the Digital City. In the various discussion forums up to the present, typical Amster- dam topics could be discussed such as the appointment of a new mayor, 'construction and demolition in Amsterdam' and the extension of Schiphol (although this last topic falls outside the Amsterdam region's sphere of interest). In the Digital City can be found the platforms of Amsterdam's political parties, and connections have been laid in the office district between a large number of Amsterdam non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, the Digital City was partially financed by Amsterdam council. However, a 'virtual community' like the Digital City has no physical location on the map. So non-Amsterdammers could also just dial into the system (or 'telnet' via Internet). It appears from the table below that many non-Amsterdammers did just that. Table 3: PLACE OF RESIDENCE (N=1168) Amsterdam 45.0% Other Dutch municipalities 53.7% Abroad 1.3% Total 100.1% 45 percent of the Digital City's inhabitants live in Amsterdam. If we include the adjoining towns this figure rises to about 50 percent of the inhabitants residing in the Amsterdam region. So roughly 50% of the inhabitants are living outside the Amsterdam region. They have most likely been attracted to the Digital City through the national and even international (MTV) media coverage. It is worth noting that a considerable number of Digital City residents come from abroad. These are Dutch people (or Dutch speakers) who live in New York (USA), Ottawa (Canada), Canberra (Australia) or closer to home in Bielefeld (Germany), Paris (France) or Antwerp (Belgium). 4. Education, occupation and income The residents of the Digital City are highly edu- cated. 72 percent of the inhabitants have had, or are currently following, a HBO (Higher Vocational Train- ing) or university education (table 4). Table 4: EDUCATION (N=1192) Primary education 1.1% Secondary education HBO, MAVO/(M)ULO 3.9% MBO, HAVO, VWO 23.1% Tertiary education HBO 24.7% WO 47.3% Lower educated people are poorly represented in the Digital City. A number of causes could underlie this. Higher educated people probably come into contact with information technology more often during their courses. Through this they become more interested in the technology and develop more skills in its usage. Besides the large population of higher educated people in the Digital City, students and school pupils are also strongly represented. In reply to the question of the current position of the respondents, 31 percent indicate that they are at school or study- ing (table 5). Table 5: OCCUPATION (N=1197) student/ school pupil 31.0% private sector employed 27.3% government/ semi-government employed 21.2% self-employed 12.4% unemployed/unfit for work/pensioner etc. 7.7% domestic duties 0.1% So students form the largest category in the Digital City. They are closely followed, however, by those employed in the private sector (23.7 percent). The above picture of many young people, many higher educated and many students is again reflected in the respondents' income figures. 40 Percent of those surveyed enjoy a monthly income of 1.400 guilders or less (1 American dollar is about 1.70 Dutch guilders). 5. General interests We asked the residents of the Digital City where their specific interest areas lay. More than one area of interest could be filled in. Table 6: INTERESTS Computer technology 76.6% Art and Culture 43.3% Politics/Democracy 41.0% Social Sciences 31.3% Economics 27.2% Sport 22.5% Other 24.4% It will come as no surprise that computer technology tops the list. The Digital City is of course a com- puter system, to which computer enthusiasts are more easily attracted than others. Yet around 23 percent of the city's residents indicate no particular inter- est in computer technology. The fact that a certain degree of computer skill is a pre-requisite to par- ticipation in the Digital City is apparently no handicap for them. 6. Political interest One of the objectives of the Digital City experiment has been the provision of a discussion platform, namely concerning the local government elections. Although a lot of discussion is going on about whether this goal has actually been achieved (in the discussion group dds.technopolis), it appears from the following table that the inhabitants are poten- tially quite interested in (local) politics. On the question of whether people are interested in politi- cal topics, 75 percent answered that they were quite or very interested. Table 7: INTEREST IN POLITICS (N=1197) very interested 22.3% quite interested 54.8% hardly interested 19.1% not interested 3.1% Ten percent of the Digital City's residents are actual members of a political party. This percentage is quite high. In 1991 the national percentage of political party membership was some 3.5 percent. So there are many 'political activists' to be found in the Digital City. This figure of political activists in the city doesn't match the figure of politicians that use the system. The management of the Digital City has estab- lished a connection to the management information system of the Amsterdam town hall, so all politicians and civil servants have direct access to the Digital City. Furthermore a number of courses have been carried out in which they could get familiar with the system. In despite of these efforts, politicians and civil servants are very rarely spotted in the Digital City. 7. Cyberpunks and Technojunkies, or inexperienced users? Besides offering a platform for discussion, one of the Digital City's objectives was to familiarise more people with the medium. In order to gauge the extent to which less experienced computer users have become interested in systems like Internet, E-mail or elec- tronic discussions, we asked the city residents how much experience they already had with these kinds of networks and Bulletin-Board-Systems. Table 8: PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH COMPUTER NETWORKS (N=1197) no experience with computer networks 18.9% little experience with computer networks 14.5% some experience with computer networks some experience with computer networks 37.9% a lot of experience with computer networks 28.7% The majority of users (66.6 percent) indicated some or a lot of experience in using these kinds of net- works. For the rest, the Digital City was an intro- duction to the 'information highway'. 33,4 percent of the residents had their first experience with 'Inter- net', 'Electronic Mail' and IRC in the Digital City. In the future it will be interesting to see how they feel about using the system. The majority of users (66.6 percent) indicated some or a lot of experience in using these kinds of networks. For the rest, the Digital City was an introduction to the 'electronic highway'. 8. Reason for participation With what intentions have the residents of the Digi- tal City entered into the project? It appears from the research figures that the majority of the resi- dents 'just came to have a look around'. Many cited this as their initial reason. Table 9: REASON FOR PARTICIPATION Familiarisation/Looking around 67.9% Access to Internet 50.9% Information search 37.3% Contacting others 21.8% Following and participating in discussions 19.8% Other reasons 16.2% Access to the international Internet network comes a close second as a reason for residents of the Digital City to log in. In fact many people originally entered the Digital City just to take a look, but the access to Internet made them a permanent resident of the Digital City. In the mean time a significant portion of these Internet possibilities have been closed off. This decision was taken by the city- management because otherwise the Digital City would have an unfair advantage over other commercial and non-commercial Internet services such as Nlnet or the Hacktic Network (XS4ALL). This decision could well cost the Digital City residents, as is apparent from the large number of people who indicated just these Internet facilities as their reason for participa- tion. A number of those surveyed stated that after the disconnection from internet they switched to XS4ALL or Nlnet. Perhaps new 'attractions' within the Digital City such as the 'Digital Metro' (a Multi- User, Object-Oriented environment, in which (nearly) all inhabitants can participate in building the environment) can make up for this loss(5). More specific objectives of the Digital City are cited less often by the residents as reasons for participation. Still, 37 percent of the residents enter the city specifically in search of information. While 20 percent visits the city in order to follow or perhaps even take part in discussions. Other reasons which were specified mainly concerned access to the Electronic-mail facilities (a number of residents say they merely use the Digital City as an electronic mailbox) and more specific matters such as looking up weather charts, or figures for planets and planetary systems. As appears from the following table, the majority of the inhabitants of the Digital City consider the use of the facilities available mainly as a kind of hobby or relaxation. Table 10:REASON FOR USING THE FACILITIES (N=1197) Hobby/relaxation 60.2% Other personal objectives 16.2% Work 14.9% Other reasons 8.4% The other personal objectives can be interpreted very broadly. It might be a petition that an Amsterdam resident wants to send to the council administration, or it could be of a Dutch person, stationed in the United States for a couple of months, making the necessary contact with home. Fifteen percent of the Digital City's inhabitants use the digital to find information or make contact for working purposes. 9. Use of different facilities What do the residents of the Digital City do during the time that they are logged in? Earlier we saw that use of Internet is an important motivation for taking part in the Digital City. But what about the other facilities on offer in the city? The resident has many possibilities at his or her disposal. The fol- lowing table shows to what extent these facilities are exploited, according to the residents themselves. The question was, 'How often do you use the ........- .... facility?'. Table 15: USE OF THE FACILITIES a lot regular a little none Internet 24% 30% 23% 23% Electronic mail 22% 30% 32% 17% IRC (cafes) 10% 12% 27% 51% Electronic magazines 5% 19% 45% 32% Discussion platforms 4% 12% 28% 56% Pol. party info 3% 10% 34% 53% Council information 2% 9% 32% 57% Office district info 1% 9% 20% 60% For clarity's sake the figures have been rounded off to the nearest integer. Here also it seems to be mainly the Internet facil- ities which enjoy great popularity amongst the resi- dents of the Digital City. It should also be noted that both the electronic mail and 'remote chat' take place via Internet. The more 'local' areas of the city are visited less often. The electronic magazines can still count on a reasonable amount of interest. The other figures dwindle away. The information about political parties was mainly requested during the election period. Many respondents indicated that they had 'downloaded' an election platform or other infor- mation. However, not much more has happened with this menu, as we often hear people complain. The municipal databanks and the office district databanks, full of specific information, are the least often consulted. That much of this information specifically relates to Amsterdam, should be taken in to account here. About half of the dds-residents are actually living in Amsterdam. If the survey had taken Amsterdam residence into account, the figures would have been shown in a better light. In fact, the Administrative Information System of the Amsterdam council was consulted about 8.000 times in the first ten weeks. Traditional consultation of this data, via the council itself, only took place a few hundred times. Next to the question of the relative usage of the various facilities within the Digital City, we also asked about the amount of real time spent using them. How long does the average IRC user spend logged into the network? The respondents were asked to estimate the average weekly time spent. However, this question should be analyzed with a certain amount of reserve. In the first place, it is merely an estimate. In the second place, a reasonable percentage of the respon- dents (about 22 percent) indicated that they were not capable of making such an estimate. The following table indicates how much time is spent on the facil- ities per week. (Those who claimed to make no use of the facilities were left out): Table 12: WEEKLY TIME SPENT ON FACILITIES (in minutes) Use of Internet 83 Remote chat (cafes) 76 Electronic mail 48 Discussion platforms 40 Magazines 30 Office district information 20 Council information 19 Political party information 18 Example reading: of those who make use of Internet, the average user uses it for 83 minutes (one hour and 23 minutes) a week. Thus the actual big consumers in the Digital City are those who 'data travel' via the worldwide Internet network. The average IRC user also uses up a big chunk of the Digital City's time. 10 Contact with fellow residents Residents of the Digital City can come into contact with each other in various ways. For many of the inhabitants this was also one of their reasons for visiting the Digital City. We surveyed the Digital City's residents in order to ascertain how often they actually do come into contact with each other. Table 13: CONTACT WITH FELLOW RESIDENTS Very often 3.5% Regular 16.8% Seldom 33.3% Never 46.1% Nearly half of the Digital City's inhabitants never come into contact with their fellow residents. Life in the Digital City is to a large extent an anonymous life, only 20 percent of the users communicate reg- ularly with fellow users. 11 Opinion about user-friendliness and willingness to pay user fee At the moment the questionnaire was on the system, the digital system was just 4 months of age. In this early stage of existence the residents were asked for their opinion about the functioning of the digital system. First their opinion about the user friendli- ness of the user interface was questioned. The envi- ronment in which the Digital City residents have to operate is totally text-oriented. Several software programs like e-mail, newsreaders, gophers etc, are connected by the menu. Because of this connection of various software programmes, the same command can have different effects in different places. Table 14: USER-FRIENDLINESS (N=1192) very user-friendly 12.7% user-friendly 59.9% user-unfriendly 20.9% very user-unfriendly 3.6% do not know / no judgment 2.9% In spite of the above mentioned problems a majority the residents of the Digital City (62,2 percent) evaluate the user friendliness in a positive sense. Almost 25 percent of the residents think otherwise. These people experience trouble with the syntaxis of Internet and the Digital City. Most people are also unfamiliar with the UNIX-syntaxis. A more easy to handle graphical user interface is currently being developed and expected to be in use fall 1994 on the World Wide Web. Access to the Digital City is free, no access-fee is required. The Digital City is financed by Dutch government institutions (the municipality of Amster- dam, the ministry of Internal Affairs and the minis- try of Economic Affairs). The inhabitants of the city do not contribute to the sustainability of the system (about 50-60.000 Dutch guilders a month). At this moment the question can be posed wether systems like the Digital City should pursuit a more self-supporti- ve system, by gaining money from private resources or by establishing an access-fee for the users. In the questionnaire the users were asked if they would be willing to pay an access-fee. The results show that only a small part of the present inhabitants are willing to do so unconditionally. Table 15: WILLINGNESS TO PAY ACCESS-FEE (N=1192) Yes 26.2 No 32.1 Don't know 41.7 32 Percent of the respondents indicate that they are not ready to pay an access fee. Almost 42 percent of the people would need an extra consideration. The respondents filled in the questionnaire before the city-management decided to close the Internet access. Considering the large popularity of the Internet, the inhabitants of the city would probably be less willing to pay an access-fee without that connection. Those who are prepared to pay an access-fee for the Digital City were asked how high their contribution would be: Table 16: AMOUNT between 0 and 10 Dutch guilders 51.0% between 10 and 20 Dutch guilders 34.6% between 20 and 30 Dutch guilders 13.5% between 30 and 50 Dutch guilders .3% 50 Dutch guilders or more .6% These figures show that the Digital City will not easy be completely self-supportive. First the establishment of an access fee would cost the city a lot of inhabitants who probably will move elsewhere. Second the remaining citizens are only willing to pay a modest fee (modest compared to a subscription to a paper or magazine). The figures in table 16 must not be taken to strict because it is likely that users didn't estimate their fee all to high to influence a future discussion on the subject. 12. General opinion Table 17: GENERAL OPINION Very positive 22.4% Positive 61.9% Positive/negative 12.6% Negative 2.0% Very negative .2% Don't know/no opinion .9% A large majority of the respondents has a positive general opinion about the Digital City. A very small minority people pass a negative judgement over the Digital City. Even if we take into account that people who undertook the actions to become resident to the Digital City probably will tend to be more positive about the medium, the percentage of positive responses is still remarkably high. 13 Distinction by sex, age and experience In the digital citizen review survey in a number of variables the backgrounds of the citizens were ques- tioned. Especially the distinction by sex, age and previous experience with computer networks show interesting differences in the way the system is used and judged. The variables 'employment status', 'income' and 'education' show almost no differences in the way users use and judge the Digital City. a. Distinction by sex Female users seem to contact fellow citizens more often than male users. Wether that results from the fact that female users are more actively looking for contact with fellow citizens, ore that female users are simply more often approached by male users remains to be seen (table 18, appendix 1). Analysis of the patterns of use shows that female citizens more often use the e-mail option. The use of the Internet is considerably more popular with male users (tables 19 and 20 appendix 1). Finally female users more often a positive general opinion about the Digital City, and are more positive about the user friendliness of the user-interface (tables 21 and 22 appendix 1). b. Distinction by age Many young people are active in the Digital City. These young users have different usages and opinions about the system than older users. First the Digital City is mainly considered by young users as a means of amusement. Older users more often give the reason 'work' for a stay in the Digital City (table 23, appendix 1), except from the more 'senior' users. Younger users more often contact fellow citizens than older users. Especially the most juvenile category between 8 and 18 years of age state they often con- tact fellow citizens (13 percent, table 24, appendix 1). Older users are less inclined to do so. An important distinction between older and younger users is the way they use the facilities in the Digital City. Electronic mail, Internet and IRC are more often used by younger users. Information ser- vices like the Amsterdam Management information System the office district and the information of political parties are relatively more used by older users (tables 25 through 30, appendix 1). c. Distinction by previous experience with computer networks One of the goals of the Digital City is to attract attention to new developments in the area of elec- tronic datacommunication like the Internet, or the (inter)national datahighway. As mentioned before about 19 percent of the inhabitants didn't have any experience with computer networks. Are there diffe- rences between this group of users an the more ex- perienced network-users? A striking result is in the first place that differ- ences occur only with a few variables. In most aspects experienced and inexperienced users use and judge the system identically. A few differences can be pointed out nevertheless. Inexperienced network users more often use a modem and computer at home to log in at the Digital City. These users probably already owned a modem but didn't know a purpose for it, or have purchased a modem specially to use it to make a connection to the Digital City (table 31, appendix 1). Another striking difference between experienced and inexperienced users is that the first judge more often positive about the user-friendliness of the Digital City and have a more positive general opinion about it than the latter (tables 32, 33, appendix 1). Summary and conclusion The above figures give an image of the average inhab- itant of the Digital City. The total image is rather one-sided. The Digital City is mostly inhabited by young men with a high level of education, often still studying, or working in the private or public sector, with an above average interest in politics, and a lot of interest and skills in the use of information- and communication-technology. Women, older people and lower educated people are very poorly represented in the city. The only diversity is in the respondents' places of residence. Although primarily set up as an Amsterdam network, only fifty percent of the Digital City's population actually live in the Amsterdam region. The residents of the Digital City are extremely interested in computer technology. But they are also quite interested in art/culture and politics- /democracy. Most people visit the Digital City 'just to have a look around'. Having checked out the possi- bilities, it is usually the Internet facilities which make people want to stay. Three quarters of the city's residents stay there as a hobby or for relaxation. About fifteen percent of the inhabitants use the city for professional ends. So logging in to the Digital City mostly takes place via modem on the home computer. It is mainly the Internet facilities which are utilised by the city-residents. Use of Internet itself, the E-mail facilities and the IRC are the most popular. This is an important observation, because it has been decided (because of consider- ations of competition) to partially close off to users exactly these facilities. So many users will disappear from the Digital City. However, new attrac- tions such as the digital metro may be able to make up for this loss. The general opinion about the Digital City is posi- tive. The user-friendliness of the user interface on the other hand is criticised upon by 25 percent of the users. Discussion As mentioned earlier, the profile of the average inhabitant of the Digital City is rather one-sided. A well educated male youngster, who is very much inter- ested in computer technology. He uses the system mostly to establish a connection with the worldwide Internet network. A number of questions arise when we consider these survey results. Firstly we can ask wether one-sided user-profiles are common in electronic networks like the Digital City. Are citizen-review-surveys carried out in American and Canadian Freenet-systems? What were the results of these surveys and how was responded to it? Secondly, what should be the reaction to the one- sidedness of the user population? Is it to be con- sidered as a serious problem? Until now the Digital City offers mainly a platform for participation for those who already are privileged with access to many traditional forms of communication. Is it possible for the Digital City to meet its goals of enhancing citizen-participation, or should these goals be reformulated or even abolished? Should an action-programme be formulated to attract older, female and less educated users? Can action- programmes like these work? Are there any experiences with action-programmes like these in American and Canadian Freenets? No answers to these questions can be provided yet. At this moment the Digital City is eight months of age. Monitoring future developments and events and a comparison with American and Canadian experiences, might broaden our view. (1) Kees Schalken is Ph.D.-student at Tilburg University, Pieter Tops is professor of public administration at Tilburg University. They participate in the research program 'Informa- tization and the public sector'. (2) Rheingold, H., The virtual community , Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Massachusetts, 1993, p. 4. (3) Donk, W.B.H.J. van de, and P.W. Tops, Informatisation and Democracy: Orwell or Athens? in: Informatization and the public sector, nr 3, 1992, p. 169-196. (4) Hoai-An Trouong, Gail Williams, Judi Clark en Anna Couey: Gender issues in online communication, Bay Area Women in Tele- communications. (5) After the disconnection of Internet from the Digital City, the amount of users at first actually seemed to diminish. Momentally all modem lines are busy on rush-hours again (30 connections). For the most part this can be attributed to the digital Metro (15 participants in the Metro simultaneously is no exception). ---------------------------------------- Appendix 1 CROSSTABS Table 18: MADE CONTACT BY SEX many times regularly rarely never Male 2.8% 16.4% 33.8% 47,0% Female 10.8% 20.6% 30.4% 38.2% Table 19: USE OF ELECTRONIC MAIL BY SEX many times regularly rarely never Male 20.5% 30.2% 32.4% 16.8% Female 36.6% 24.8% 23.8% 14.9% Table 20: USE OF INTERNET BY SEX many times regularly rarely never Male 24.9% 30.4% 22.7% 21.8% Female 17.8% 22.8% 26.7% 31.7% Table 21: USER-FRIENDLINESS BY SEX very user user very user-friendly friendly unfriendly userunfriendly Male 11.6% 60.3% 21.5% 3.5% Female 24.5% 53.9% 15.7% 4.9% Table 22: GENERAL OPINION BY SEX very not positive very positive positive or negative negative negative Male 21.7% 62.7% 13.0% 1.8% - Female 29.4% 54.9% 7.8% 3.9% 2,0% Table 23: CONTACTED FELLOW RESIDENTS BY AGE many times regularly rarely never 8-18 13.0% 15.9% 31.9% 39.1% 19-25 2.9% 23.2% 32.3% 41.6% 26-30 2.6% 17.3% 34.2% 46.0% 31-35 5.4% 12.9% 37.1% 44.6% 36-40 1.6% 16.4% 32.0% 50.0% 41-50 1.4% 9.9% 31.2% 57.4% 50+ 2.5% 5.0% 30.0% 62.5% Table 24: USER OBJECTIVES BY AGE work hobby / relaxation 8-18 - 91.3% 19-25 5.6% 73.6% 26-30 14.7% 59.3% 31-35 19.6% 50.0% 36-40 27.3% 41.4% 41-50 27.0% 48.2% 50+ 15.0% 57.5% Table 25: USE OF ELECTRONIC MAIL BY AGE many times rarely regularly never 8-18 66.7% 34.3% 19-25 56.0% 44.0% 26-30 43.4% 66.6% 31-35 53.8% 46.2% 36-40 45.3% 54.7% 41-50 32.8% 67.2% 50+ 47.5% 52.5% Table 26: NOT USING COUNCIL INFORMATION BY AGE 8-18 63.8% 19-25 66.9% 26-30 58.5% 31-35 49.7% 36-40 52.8% 41-50 38.6% 50+ 57.5% Table 27: NOT USING POLITICAL PARTY INFORMATION BY AGE 8-18 61.8% 19-25 53.8% 26-30 52.2% 31-35 47.8% 36-40 55.1% 41-50 52.5% 50+ 57.5% Table 28: NOT USING OFFICE DISTRICT INFORMATION BY AGE 8-18 76.5% 19-25 62.9% 26-30 58.5% 31-35 53.5% 36-40 53.5% 41-50 63.3% 50+ 65.0% Table 29: MANY TIMES/REGULARLY USING INTERNET BY AGE 8-18 65.2% 19-25 60.7% 26-30 57.0% 31-35 46.8% 36-40 55.1% 41-50 40.7% 50+ 30.0% Table 30: MANY TIMES/REGULARLY USING IRC BY AGE 8-18 44.9% 19-25 29.7% 26-30 21.3% 31-35 19.9% 36-40 10.2% 41-50 10.0% 50+ 15.0% Table 31: PARTICIPATION WHEN CHARGED BY AGE yes no do not know 8-18 7.2% 34.8% 58.0% 19-25 22.0% 39.0% 39.0% 26-30 27.5% 32.2% 39.9% 31-35 29.6% 28.5% 41.9% 36-40 33.6% 25.0% 41.4% 41-50 27.7% 27.0% 45.4% 50+ 40.0% 15.0% 45.0% Table 32: LOGIN METHOD BY EXPERIENCE WITH COMPUTER NETWORKS computer/modem work place of study no experience 82.3% 10.0% 3.2% little experience 81.6% 8.0% 5.2% distant experience 73.7% 12.8% 8.8% much experience 68.3% 18.6% 9.9% Table 33:USER-FRIENDLINESS BY EXPERIENCE WITH COMPUTER NETWORKS (very) (very) user-friendly user-unfriendly no experience 77.9% 18.1% little experience 71.8% 25.3% distant experience 72.2% 25.6% much experience 69.7% 27.0% Table 34: PARTICIPATION WHEN CHARGED BY EXPERIENCE WITH COMPUTER NETWORKS yes no do not know no experience 31.2% 23.5% 45.2% little experience 26.9% 29.7% 42.9% distant experience 25.9% 31.2% 42.9% much experience 23.0% 40.1% 36.9% --------------------------------------------------------- Appendix 2: Questionnaire First citizen review survey in The Digital City Looking at the number of participants, the Digital City appears to be a success. 11,000 Inhabitants have been registered in the first six weeks the city was operational. Up to now the number of 'logins' has passed 100,000 abundantly. We know only little about the inhabitants by what they think of The Digital City. With regard to the future of the city we wanted to find out the backgrounds of the city's inhabitants. The initiators of the city, together with researchers of the universities of Tilburg and Utrecht, therefore constructed a questionnaire, which contains questions about the backgrounds of the inhabitants, the way The Digital City is used by the inhabitant's opinions about the Digital City. We request you to fill in the questionnaire completely. The data will be processed anonymously. We will present the results in The Digital City as soon as possible. We thank you in advance for your cooperation. 1. What sex do you have? - male - female 2. In which year were you born? 19.. 3. What is your place of residence? ......................................................... 4. What is the highest level of education that you followed or which you are following right now? - primary education - secondary vocational education - O levels A levels - college - university 5. What is your employment status at this moment? - government / semi government employed - private sector employed - self employed - domestic duties - student / school pupil - unemployed / unfit for work / pensioner etc. 6. What is your monthly net income (Dutch guilders)? - 1,400 or less - between 1,400 by 2,000 - between 2,000 by 2,500 - between 2,500 by 3000 - above 3,000 7. Are you interested in politics? - very interested - quite interested - hardly interested - not interested 8. Are you a member of a political party? - yes - no 9. Which party did you vote latest city council elections on 3 March? - not voted - CDA - PvdA - VVD - D66 - GroenLinks - SP - CD / CP '86 - SGP / GPV / RPF - local party - other, namely .............. 10. You visit The Digital City mostly: - direct, via computer and modem at home - via facilities at work - via facilities at college - other, namely .............. 11. Did you have experience with computer networks like Bulle- tin Board systems, XS4ALL or Internet before you visited The Digital City? - no experience with computer networks - little experience with computer networks - distant experience with computer networks - much experience with computer networks 12. How many hours did you approximately use The Digital City? Approximately .... hours 13. Why did you become an inhabitant of The Digital City (you can mark several possibilities)? - to look around and explore the possibilities - to find information (about the municipality, political parties, private organisations) - to follow and participate in discussions - to have access to Internet - to contact people in 'cafes' (Internet Relay Chat) - other, namely .................. 14. Did you contact other inhabitants since your stay in The Digital City? - many times new contacts with other inhabitants - regularly new contacts with other inhabitants - rarely new contacts with other inhabitants - never contacts with other inhabitants 15. I use the facilities of The Digital City especially for: - my work - hobby, relaxation - other personal objectives - other, namely .................. 16. Could you state for each of the facilities mentioned whether you use them or not? a. Electronic mail - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic mail (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. b. Electronic magazines - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic magazines (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. c. Council information - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on council infor- mation (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. d. Political party information - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on political party information (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. e. discussion platforms - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic mail (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. f. Office district information - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic mail (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. g. Internet - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic mail (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. h. 'Remote Chat' (cafes) - a lot - regular - a little - none Approximately what time do you spend weekly on electronic mail (in minutes, hours or days)? ................................. 17. In what issues are you especially interested? - art and culture - sports - politics and democracy - economy - social sciences (sociology, psychology, etc.) - computer technology - other 18. How do you judge the user-friendliness of The Digital City? - The Digital City is very user-friendly - The Digital City is user-friendly - The Digital City is user-unfriendly - The Digital City is very user-unfriendly - do not know / no judgment 19. When participation of The Digital City would be charged monthly, would you continue your participation? - yes - no - do not know 20. If you continue your participation, which amount would you be prepared to pay? - between 0 and 10 Dutch guilders - between 10 and 20 Dutch guilders - between 20 and 30 Dutch guilders - between 30 and 50 Dutch guilders - 50 Dutch guilders or more 21. What is your general opinion of The Digital City? - very positive - positive - not positive or negative - negative - very negative - do not know / no opinion 22. We would like to contact the inhabitants of The Digital City personally to question them on their experiences with and opinions on the project. If you are willing to cooperate, you can fill in your electronic mail address: Mail address: ............................. Your mail address will not be coupled with the data of this research. Your anonymity will thus be guaranteed. Also you can mail your remarks to Kees Schalken, Ph.D.student at Tilburg University, who will process and analyze the data of this research. You can mail him at c.a.t.schalken@kub.nl or kiske@dds.hack- tic.nl We thank you for your cooperation!