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What are the key indicators determining groups' attitudes towards the use of ICT in the United States? Nationally representative data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project (N = 4100) were used to address this question. This research found that (1) the most salient divider in the American population with respect to attitudes towards ICT is education; (2) the two social groups reporting the highest levels of social improvement were respondents under the age of 30, and older African-Americans with low educational levels; (3) higher income but lower educated respondents who are over 30 and are not African-Americans report relatively low levels of social improvement. In effect, the population surveyed was stratified based upon their attitudes about ICT use in their everyday life. This stratification system is clearly of a different nature than our past understanding of haves and have-nots based upon ICT access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how differences in social ties lead to differences in the social use of information and communication technology (ICT) and vice versa. The article draws on a qualitative study in the field of disability studies. Through this study of a marginalized subgroup of youth, the article advances insight into the permeability of the real and the virtual and extends the notion of established concepts of social ties and digital differentiation. The youth in the current study are 23 disabled Norwegians aged 15-20 years. The analysis is based on the principles of grounded theory and is characterized by a constant content comparative process. The outcome of this analysis shows how social ties of a marginalized subgroup of young people hold different characteristics than established notions anticipate, how these characteristics are vital in youths' interaction in offline and online life and how this interaction implies a mixed reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technology innovations (ICT) are considered to be of central importance to social and economic developments. Various innovation theories offer classifications to predict and assess their impact. This article reviews the usefulness of selected approaches and their application in the convergent communications sector. It focuses on the notion of disruption, the comparatively new distinction between disruptive and sustaining innovations, and examines how it is related to other innovation-theoretical typologies. According to the literature, there is a high frequency of disruptive changes in the field of internet protocol-based innovations in combination with wireless technology. A closer analysis reveals that these classifications and assessments not only differ in detail but are even contradictory. The article explains these differences by highlighting delicate choices that have to be taken by analysts applying the disruption concept. It argues that its applicability is comparatively low in the convergent communications sector and generalizations of single-firm assessments are hardly valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion of innovation theorizes on how human beings adopt new communication technology, but it fails to take into account the institutional factors involved in the process. In this study involving new communicational technology use in a small Greek rural village, it is determined that the village cafe, as the central socializing element in the community, plays a powerful role in dissemination of new communicational devices, or what this article conceptualizes as 'mediating commons'. Such mediating commons social institutions as the village cafe play a significant role in encouraging the adoption of new communication products; without such a mediating commons in a community, adoption rates may reduce significantly and lead to a spreading digital divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]