Staying connected?

In a recent article we reported on how social networking tools were having an increasing impact on corporate life - for better or worse! No doubt the debate will run and run, and no doubt, like so many new technologies (the Web, anyone?), we shall arrive at a happy medium where such tools become part of the business fabric. In …

[salman ali]

Misleading categories

Survey categories are possibly a bit misleading. I'd fall into the "I'm content to only have access while I'm at my desk" category, but that's because I'm at my desk almost all my waking hours. I don't need to carry around a mobile computing device for that reason alone, I'm barely mobile, and most of my geeky friends are the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

Title

> we need to keep in mind the caveat that people responding to surveys about online collaboration, are potentially going to be the people who are more interested in having some kind of connection.

no sheet, sherlock. but then you say:

> Even so, the number is high

?!?! When the survey respondents are a bunch of uber-techies (Reg readers)? Just 50% of them find mobile connection important?

I think that that should have read

"the number is low"

and I conclude that there's hope for humanity if even the uber-techies into online collaboration like to be incommunicado now and then.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about me?

I don't even have Internet at my desk. Secure area - physically, and with respect to the network.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What about me?

Agree! We need a category "I am unable to answer this survey as I do not have internet access". ;-p

[Will Godfrey]

It's all in the small print

Where and when was this survey done?

Where there any 'none of the above' answer possibilites?

How many respondents were there?

What was their approximate geograpical location?

[Anthony]

Always On.. not for much longer

In an effort to save electricity the Government is going to invent a machine that bypasses the standby button.

[Magnus Egilsson]

You can pry the broadband connection from my cold dead fingers

Enuff said :)

[John O'Leary]

Always on != has landline

There are many people (half of the world?) who are potentially always connected to the Internet but do not have a landline and do not use their connectivity because of cost or lack of cost transparency.

[Dale Vile]

Research note

Hi - I am a colleague Jon Collins, the analyst who did this research and wrote the article. There are a couple of things that are worth noting that may be of interest based on one or two of the above comments.

Firstly, other research we have conducted over the years outside of The Register has demonstrated pretty consistently that non-technical 'professional' users (sales guys, consultants, managers, execs, and so on) are significantly more interested in mobile access to systems than technical users. In fact, the "uber-techies" someone referred to are some of the most sceptical and least interested.

Regarding details of the survey itself, it was conducted about three weeks or so ago and 1456 responses were collected. 53% of responses were from the UK, 17% from the USA and the remainder spread across the rest of the world.

Thanks for pulling us up on this, we'll be sure to include brief details of the study when referring to research in the future.Thanks also to those who pointed out that there wasn't an ideal option offered for people who spend all of their time sitting at their desk. I don't think this had an impact on any of the conclusions, but the point is understood.

Anyway, hope you find these little surveys useful - they are not meant to provide the definitive word, just some points of interest to share ideas between readers and get people thinking.

[JC]

Re: Research Note

The distinction of techie vs mobile pros with profit-tied incentives is understandable. In the former group there are those seasoned and most proficient at getting the content they need in short order. In the latter group there is not as much a thirst for the content but rather being accessible to perform job functions (or networking, also social functions as the techs tend to have a smaller closer group of friends).

Further, many techs are a bit burnt out on connectivity, they had that phase in their online life and have since learned where to draw a line to maintain some balance. The newer adopters of this tech have yet to progress this far into realizing tech is a tool, maybe a way to make a living or hobby, but not necessarily a saddle or status symbol.

The distinction may not be important though, more important is the underlying perception of how important it is to have access when it is perceived necessary, what loss it would seem to have no connection if/when one is desired and what one would do to compensate, and what (if any) emotional response was elicited from being disconnected unintentionally.