Opening Keynote: Lee Rainie, Director of the PEW Internet and American Life Project

Lee Ranie is the founding Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. He is indeed a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker who seems to have developed great respect for librarians and libraries. We should all look at his “Home Media Ecology Slide“ which he updated recently. We will attempt to find a link to it.

Mr. Rainie began his presentation with the eight hallmarks from the most recent PEW study Pew Survey on Adult Internet Use (.pdf).

1 Broadband is at the center.
2 Content creators
3.Wireless mobility
4. Ordinary citizens can be publishers, movie makers, performers, etc.
5. All content creators have an audience
6. Many are sharing what they know—collective intelligence
7. People are customizing their online experiences to meet their own needs using web 2.0 tools.
8. People use these technologies in different ways.

He then proceeded to talk a bout the levels of expertise of the users. High end users consist of 4 distinct groups: Omnivores who do everything on the web; connectors who use the web but do not create content; lackluster vets who are older, white, and upscale. They have all of the bells and whistles, but don’t like using it. Finally there are the productivity enhancers who use the web only at work.

Middle Users consist of 2 groups. The first group loves their cell phones, but they have no broadband at home. The cost of new technology prices them out of the market. They are in their 30’s and are often minorities.

Group 2 is connected but hassled. They find technology annoying.

Low End Users fall into 4 subgroups: Inexperienced experimenters who are late adopters of technology; Then comes light but satisfied. They check their e-mail; The indifferent don’t like technology, and finally, there is the off the network people who don’t use the Internet at all. They are generally older adults. Nearly ½ the population is not on the net.

Our challenge as librarians is to meet the needs of all of these groups. We should be confident in what we already know about serving the library needs of our customers. But we also have to think outside the box.

P.S. We’re really just writing about Lee Rainie so he will mention us in his next presentation…lol