Classic Low Bandwidth Interfaces

Is there a "classic" interface option for LinkedIn? That is static web pages suitable for an older browser and slow link (like the classic option in FastMail.fm and Microsoft's ‘Outlook Web Access Light'). Linked-in works well when I am on a broadband Internet connections, but when travelling and using slower wireless link the interface becomes unusable.

The interface problem became farcical when I tried to report it to LinkedIn's help service. The link for help is on the bottom of the web pages, but when I tried to scroll down, the system kept adding more content to the page. There seemed to be no way to ever reach the bottom of the page. Eventually I found the help link elsewhere and requested a classic interface.

Mobile Web Interface Better Bet on Desktop Computer

One of my house-guests recently wanted to place a bet on-line with tab.com.au using my desktop computer (which has the Firefox for Linux browser). The site reported "You need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed to access the wealth of features ...". But it also said "You can REGISTER, DEPOSIT and PLACE BETS using tab.mobi if you can't download or update Flash.". This simplified mobile web interface looked a little odd on a 24 Inch monitor, with a small amount of very large text. But my friend commented it was faster and easier to use that the Flash interface they usually used. It does make me wonder why interface designers produce complex "flash" designs, when the punter just wants to quickly place a bet.

Classic Option with Responsive Web Design

This is to suggest web designers include a "classic"  option in their web pages, for users with low bandwidth, high latency Internet connections. This could be incorporated in Responsive web design (RWD).

RWD uses relative sizes, fluid layout and CSS3 media queries to adjust the web page layout to mobile devices. The idea is to allow for basic browsers without Javascript and then add features which more advanced units have. This differs from a design concept of "graceful degradation" where the advanced features are included in such a way they will be ignored on simple devices.

In practice it may not be worth designing web pages for "dumb" mobile phones. In Australia half the population now have smart phones and it is unlikely that many people will be bothered trying to operate a web interface on a tiny dumb phones without a touch screen.

However, RWD could be used to provide a "classic" interface for those on low speed Internet connections with high latency. Interfaces which use Javascript to  provide a highly interactive interface can cause problems where the Internet connection is slow. In these cases a classic" interface which presents static web pages and simple forms will work better. This option can be presented to the user as an option, and where the server detects a slow connection, the user can be prompted to turn it on. The classic interface could be switched on where the link is detected to be very slow, or where the server is overloaded.

As an example, the email service FastMail offers a classic interface which can be selected by the user from the log in screen. Unfortunately there seems to be no way for the user to set this as their preferred option and they have to select it each time they log in. In contrast LinkedIn offers no classic interface, making low speed browsing difficult.

Energy Saving for Mobile Computing Using the Cloud

Qiufen Xia will speak on "Offloading Algorithms for Mobile Computing" at the Australian National University in Canberra,11:30am, 30 November 2012.

Offloading Algorithms for Mobile Computing

Qiufen Xia

 (ANU, Research School of Computer Science)

CS HDR MONITORING

DATE: 2012-11-30
TIME: 11:30:00 - 12:00:00
LOCATION: CSIT Seminar Room, N101

ABSTRACT:
Mobile devices such as netbooks and smart phones,have made computing ubiquitous. However such battery powered devices often have limited computing power for the benefit of an extended runtime. Offloading is an effective method for extending the lifetime of mobile devices by executing some partitioned components of applications remotely(eg.,on the server in a data center or in a cloud). To achieve energy saving while satisfying the given constraints, such as execution time, many partitioning and offloading algorithms have been presented. In this presentation, I will briefly talk about some of these algorithms.

Real-world Accessibility with Roger Hudson

Roger Hudson is presetting "Real-world Accessibility" in Canberra, 16 May 2012.

... A new generation accessibility workshop which focuses on two key questions:

• Can we use the new, exciting and dynamic features of the web and still make accessible sites?
• How do we determine if a site or application is accessible?

In answering these questions, the workshop will push the boundaries of web accessibility with practical exercises in developing modern accessible sites and evaluating the accessibility of web content. ...

Australian Disability Standards for Education

The document Disability Standards for Education and accompanying Guidance notes, were created to help educators provide access for students with disabilities. The standards apply from preschool to TAFE and university, to public and private providers and also to internal organization training courses at companies and government agencies. While having been in effect since August 2005, they are not well know amongst educators in Australia, perhaps due to the poor way the documents have been provided on-line. A Review of the Disability Standards for Education commenced in 2011, which also suffered from poor e-document design.

Contents

Introduction 4

Part 1 Preliminary

1.1 Name of Standards 6
1.2 Commencement 6
1.3 Objects 6
1.4 Definitions 6
1.5 Who must comply with the Standards 7
1.6 Construction of Standards 8

Part 2 Meaning of important terms

2.1 Education providers 9
2.2 Meaning of on the same basis 9

Part 3 Making reasonable adjustments

3.1 Application of Part 10
3.2 Meaning of student 10
3.3 Adjustments 10
3.4 Reasonable adjustments 10
3.5 Consulting the student 11
3.6 Deciding on an adjustment to be made 12
3.7 Adjustments to be provided in reasonable time 12
3.8 Relation to premises standards 12

Part 4 Standards for enrolment

4.1 Application of Part 13
4.2 Enrolment standards 13
4.3 Measures for compliance with standards 14

Part 5 Standards for participation

5.1 Application of Part 15
5.2 Participation standards 15
5.3 Measures for compliance with standards 16

Part 6 Standards for curriculum development, accreditation and delivery

6.1 Application of Part 17
6.2 Standards for curriculum development and accreditation and delivery 17
6.3 Measures for compliance with standards 18

Part 7 Standards for student support services

7.1 Application of Part 19
7.2 Standards for support services 19
7.3 Measures for compliance with standards 21

Part 8 Standards for harassment and victimisation

8.1 Meaning of harassment 22
8.2 Application of Part 22
8.3 Standards for eliminating harassment and victimisation 22
8.4 Harassment and victimisation provisions of the Act continue to apply 23
8.5 Measures for compliance with standards 23

Part 9 Treatment of a person who has an associate with a disability

9.1 Act continues to apply in relation to person who has associate with a disability 25

Part 10 Exceptions

10.1 Exceptions 26
10.2 Unjustifiable hardship 26
10.3 Acts done under statutory authority 27
10.4 Protection of public health 27
10.5 Special measures 27

Part 11 Review

11.1 Timetable for review 28

Introduction

These Standards are formulated by the Commonwealth Attorney-General under the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (the Act).

The Act seeks to eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination against people with disabilities. Under section 22 of the Act, it is unlawful for an educational authority to discriminate against a person on the ground of the person’s disability or a disability of any associates of that person. Section 31 of the Act enables the Attorney-General to formulate disability standards in relation to a range of areas, including the education of persons with a disability.

The Standards are subordinate legislation and are subject to the objects of the Act. They clarify and elaborate the legal obligations in relation to education.

Under section 32 of the Act, it is unlawful for a person to contravene a disability standard. A complaint about an alleged contravention can be made to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Section 34 of the Act provides that, if a person acts in accordance with a disability standard, Part 2 of the Act does not apply to the person’s action or, in other words, the person’s action complies with the Act and is not made unlawful by it ...

From: Disability Standards for Education 2005, Attorney-General, Commonwealth of Australia, February 2011

Terms of Reference

In reviewing the effectiveness of the Standards, the review will consider whether the Standards:

1. have provided clarity and specificity for education and training providers and for students with disability and their families in relation to their rights and requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992

2. have assisted people with disability to access and participate in education and training opportunities on the same basis as those without disability

3. have assisted to eliminate discrimination (including harassment and victimisation) of people with disability in education and training

4. have promoted recognition and acceptance in the community of the principle that people with disability have the same fundamental rights as the rest of the community

5. are compatible with Australia’s current education and training system. ...

From: Review of the Disability Standards for Education, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, February 2011

Internet for the Rest of the World: The Mobile Phone

Greetings from the first Mobile Monday Sydney for 2012. I gave the first talk on "New Ways of Learning to Work: With E-books and E-Learning", this was followed by "VoIP via Mobile Phone: by Dan from VTalk. The last talk now underway is by Mark from Binu on "How to Make a Feature Phone Smarter using the Cloud". Binu uses the Amazon compute cloud to provide a virtual smart-phone server. They host "apps" in the cloud, to overcome the limited processing and storage capacity of non-smart phones. The interesting part of this is that Binu argue they have found a profitable business in providing a service to African customers. What I find interesting is that this same service could be used to provide education, via mobile phones.

Dan argues that these low cost phones, which are popular in developing nations are capable of providing the type of services currently though of as requiring a smart phone. This makes sense as most low cost phones thought of as "dumb" actually have a web browser built in, this is a WAP browser, which was intended to provide simple information services, but was overtaken by smart phones.

Binu's approach is similar to that used by Amazon for their Kindle Fire Tablet Computer. Knidle carry out processing of web content on their cloud computer server and then use the tablet computer essentially as a graphics terminal. This allows a lower cost lower power device to be sued and also reduces the amount of data being communicated (if the application is well designed). It happens I wrote a multi-part article about this for the Australian Computer Society Canberra Branch newsletter in 1991, which then lead to a Defense Department sponsored project. With the passage of time some of this has become easier, but other parts have become harder.

At question time the issue of security came up. As with Amazon's service, Binu's by its nature has access to more information that where a conventional web browser is used. Because the apps run on the server, the company could, if they wished to, have access to the internal information. Obviously, like any company, Binu is required to provide information demanded by national security authorities, under national laws.

Commonwealth Games 2018 Web Design

The bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games was won by the city of the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). There were problems with the design of the web site for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Bid Web Site has some problems. Hopefully these will be corrected for the main event web site:

1. W3C Markup Validation Service: Errors found while checking this document as HTML 4.01 Transitional: 10 Errors, 6 warnings.
2. W3C mobileOK Checker: Mobile-friendly score: 0 out of 100. Failures per severity: critical 3, severe 3, medium 2, low 6
3. TAW WCAG 2.0 Analysis level A: 24 Problems in 7 success criteria: Perceivable 11, Operable 7, Understandable 3, Robust 3

ACT Legislative Assembly Fails Web Page Tests

Last week I wrote that the ACT Government's new Open Government website had failed a series of automated web tests. The ACT Legislative Assembly IT Manager contacted me to say they have recently commenced a project to upgrade the parliamentary website. This includes accessibility and mobility. After a consultation process, they aim to have the new site in production in twelve months. However, when I reran the tests on the ACT Assembly Home Page, the results were far worse (see appended), than for the previously tested open government website. In my view the ACT Assembly should not wait a year before taking action to correct the errors in its web site. It should at least correct the errors in the home page. This is something which could be greatly improved with just one day's work by a competent professional.

Tests of the ACT Assembly Home Page: http://www.legassembly.act.gov.au/

1. W3C Markup Validation Service: 174 Errors, 77 warning(s)
2. W3C mobileOK Checker: 0% Failures per severity: critical 1, severe 6, medium 4, low 7
3. TAW WCAG 2.0 Analysis level A: 166 Problems in 7 success criteria: Perceivable 61, Operable 2, Understandable 2, Robust 101

ACT Government Website Continues to Fail Web Tests

Yesterday I wrote that the ACT Government's Open Government website home page failed a number of automated web code tests. The ACT responded, saying they had fixed the problems against WCAG 2 level A. So I reran the tests:

• TAW Automated Test of WCAG 2 Level A: 1 Problem in 1 success criteria
  
• W3C Markup Validation Service: 8 Errors
  
• W3C mobileOK Checker: 16%

This is an improvement, particularly with the accessibility. But it is not clear why there are still any validation errors and why the mobile compatibility is so low.

The page is 219.8KB, with 197.2KB of this images. Most of the space in images is taken up with copies of the same shaded blue background, with a small icon and a few lines of text over it. Of the 22.6KB for the document, about 2 KB is text. Optimizing the images and re-formatting would reduce the size of the document and make it easier to use on mobile devices.

ps: In comparison Google's home page has 39 HTML errors (due to the incorrect coding of the ampersand "&"). It also scores 100% on the Mobile test, with a total size of the page of 6KB (document: 3.7KB, images: 2.3KB).

ACT Open Government Website Failed Web Tests

The ACT Government invited citizens to test their new Open Government website. The home page failed an automated web accessibility test (TAW W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0), with four Priority 1 and two priority 2 problems. It also failed a W3C Markup Validation Service test, with 11 errors. The page scored 0 out of 100 on the W3C mobileOK Checker, with 2 critical, 3 severe1 medium and 5 low failures.

I suggest the ACT Government needs to bring the quality of its web pages up to an acceptable standard. In particular the ACT Government is required to comply with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. Failing to provide access to services on-line for those with a disability is unlawful. I posted a comment on this to the ACT Government's Time To Talk discussion forum.

Formatting Mobile Compatible eBooks on the Web

With the Kindle version of my eBook published alongside the iPad and PDF versions, I thought I should go back and tidy up the web version of ICT Sustainability. As this is a "book" I decided to emulate the look of an eBook reader with the web version of the content. The Caliber e-reader displays two windows: a table of contents on the left (with the current chapter highlighted) and the book pages on the right. This was simple to reproduce using CSS.

As the web page has more room I have the book title and author's name on the top of the page. Unlike an e-reader, where the book will always be opened at the title page, a search engine may take the reader directly to a chapter of the book, so it is useful to have the title and author displayed. Also I included a description that this is an eBook, so that the reader will forgive the very simple formatting of the page.

One surprise was that when I checked the HTML validation of the page I found numerous errors (and some CSS errors). These errors don't stop the pages displaying on the average web browser, but may cause problems with mobile devices (and search engines). The pages scored only about 56 out of 100 on the W3C mobileOK Checker. Fixing the syntax errors, removing all the "critical" and "severe" failures, increased the mobile score to more than 80 out of 100.

Designing a university web site

Occasionally I am asked about the design of web sites for organizations. One difficult type of organization to desk for is a university. There are conflicting demands between marketing and other parts of the universality, between student recruitment and research and between parts of the university. The web designer is confronted with these issues and there is usually no clear resolution. Some quick tips I suggest to designers are:

1. Follow an existing model: It is much easier to look at existing web sites, pick one you and your clients like and model your work on that. As an example, the ANU and University of Melbourne are Australia's two leading universities, so it would be worth looking at how they do their web pages.
2. Design for mobile devices: Increasingly web pages are being read on mobile devices. So it is a good idea to design for these. An added benefit is that the small screen size forces the designer to concentrate on what is important. There is no need to provide a special mobile site, just make the main site mobile compatible.
   
3. Design for the public: While universities have very esoteric topics for students and researchers, their web sites should be understandable by the general public. This will allow the parents of the potential students and the government decision makers who find the universities to understand what they are doing.
4. Show activities: There is a temptation to present dull history of a university or the courses available, but the first thing to show is there there are things happening. There should be a calendar of events, including many free to the public and a list of recent publications, with at least free summaries available.
5. Provide Accessible Text: While video and audio can be engaging on-line experience, important information should also be provided in cellar, simple text. This allows search engines to index the content, allows those on slow Internet links to read it and also provides additional accessibility for those with a disability,
   

Mobile Devices for Education

The Canberra Institute of Technology is hosting "ilearn: idevices for education" 6 September 2011. Teachers are ivnivted to bring along their ipads, tablets and smart phones for a free interactive workshop on how to use them for learning.

Professional Development Workshop

iteach | ilearn: idevices for education

September 6^th, Tuesday 8am- 9.30am, B016 Computer lab, B Block ground floor, CIT Southside Campus, Cnr Hindmarsh and Ainsworth, Phillip.

Topic

Mobile devices such as ipads and tablets, smart phones and iphones are here to stay and adult learners are becoming increasingly enamoured of their use as a learning tool.

Bring your device and join this interactive workshop to learn what can be done and share what you and other educators are doing to put smart devices to work for learners. The emphasis of the workshop will be on ipads and iphones but much of what is discussed should apply to tablets and android phones as well.

Cost

Free for Educators

Registration

You need to register your interest in this session by 5^th September. Please email or telephone:

Helen Lynch, ACT Toolbox Champion, Australian Flexible Learning Framework

Phone 02 6207 4031

Email Helen.lynch@cit.edu.au

For more information about other upcoming professional development opportunities for ACT educators please visit the ACT Framework webpage at: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/ACT

Smart Phone Ads Earning More Revenue

There is much talk of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers taking over the web. I notice that about 5% of the readers of my web pages are using such high end mobile devices. While this a small proportion, they are important for advertisers, as they are more than twice as likely to click on ads and advertisers are willing to pay more for these readers. As a result web pages with mobile ads earn seven times as much revenue as conventional devices and mobile users account for 34% of the revenue overall for my web site.

Usability key to online success

ACS President Anthony Wong's column in the Austrlaian newspaper today ends with the line: "ACS fellow and digital media expert Tom Worthington said usability was a key issue for using mobile commerce." (from: "Online key to business success", 3 May 2011). Usability can be improved with web standards and guidelines.

My point was that mobile devices have much more limited interfaces than desktop computers and are used on the run, so the interface needs to be much easier than with a desktop computer. Even the latest iPhones and Google Androids, have screens only about the size of a credit card. It is unlikely that phone screens will get any larger, as they will then not fit in a pocket.

Fitting content on a pocket size screen requires difficult decisions about what is important and what is not. Don't waste your most important screen real-estate with a media release about the CEO's latest cocktail party, if this punishes information about the product the customer wants off the bottom of the screen.

Mobile devices are used in environments less suited to deep thought than a sit down computer in an office. The mobile device may be pulled out on the run and so the user may have only a few seconds of uninterrupted time. This is not the time to give the customer pages of complex options. If they want to pay a bill, then let them pay the bill, without having to go through lots of check-boxes.

One easy way to start tidying up your web site for mobile use is by using the standards and guidelines developed for mobile devices and accessibly for the disabled. The first step is to ensure the web pages meet web standards, so they will work on a range of devices. Many businesses make the mistake of coding their mobile pages just for one device (such as the iPhone ) and will have a shock when these do not work so well on the new Android phones (which are now outselling the iPhone). If your business has an unlimited budget, then you can afford a team of people to customise the web interface to every device, if not, then stick to the standards.

The next step is to check for access for the disabled. You may not have many completely blind customers, but we are all getting older and having more difficulty with tiny text and tiny buttons. Meeting accessibility requirements for the disabled helps make the web site simpler for everyone. By making the interface easier for someone with limited eyesight, cognitive ability and hand movement, it also helps someone who is trying to use a mobile interface on the metro.

EduCause Australia 2011 Mobile Website

In addition to the usual web site EduCause Australia 2011 also has a Mobile Website. Unlike an Apple iPhone or Android "App", this works on a range of "smart" devices (and on an ordinary desktop computer as well).

But like the mobile interface for WCC2010, the implementation is somewhat primitive. As an example, the icons on the main screen look too large on my desktop browser.

Also all the text on the page appears to have been provided in the images. So someone who can't see images (for example because they are blind) cannot use the interface. This would not appear to comply with mandatory accessibility requirements for Austrlaian web sites.

Femtocells for Wireless Broadband

Professor Mark Reed, Principal Researcher, NICTA, talked on "Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?" at the Australian National University in Canberra, this morning. This was timely as I was at a workshop with people from the Bangladesh government discussing "e-Government for Developing Nations". One key point is that wireless allows skipping generations of telecommunications technology.

Mark argued that Femtocells can provided greatly expanded broadband wireless and outlined research areas. However, it seemed to me the major issue was how this technology could be integrated into the business models of telecommunications companies (as illustrated by the lack of a business case holding up progress with the National Broadband Network). In other words the research question is: "How do we make money out of this?". As an example, one way would be for the customer who buys a femtocell to share in the revenue from others using the cell (this happens with some public WiFi systems).

Previously I suggested wireless be built into the NBN modems installed in homes. This would provide public femtocells and a very profitable supplement to the wired service.

One technical area for research is how to carry video efficiently. As Mark pointed out video is the major driver for wireless use. But video has very different characteristics to voice transmission and web access. It should be feasible to make video hundreds of times more efficient with a few simple protocol tweaks. Changes to the network topology would make it hundreds of millions times more efficient. Some changes are relatively simple, such as changing packet sizes and priorities, some will require hardware changes, such as putting caching in the cells. While there are many millions of videos which people might watch, there will be a relatively small number which most people will be watching at one time. Also the system can anticipate what people will want to watch and download it when there is spare network capacity.

Another issue is the use of mesh networks. With this arrangement, the consumer's handsets and base stations can communicate with each other, supplementing the fixed infrastructure. This could be used with intelligent and predictive caching.

Next Generation Wireless

Professor Mark Reed, Principal Researcher, NICTA , will talk on "Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 11am, 25 November 2010. Wireless in one of the options for completing the National Broadband Network (NBN). This is a free talk, no need to book, just turn up:

Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?

Assoc. Prof. Mark Reed (NICTA)

APPLIED SIGNAL PROCESSING SERIES

DATE: 2010-11-25
TIME: 11:00:00 - 12:00:00
LOCATION: RSISE Seminar Room, ground floor, building 115, cnr. North and Daley Roads, ANU
CONTACT: charlotte.hucher@cecs.anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT:
With the forecast exponential growth of mobile broadband over the next few years and the availability of 3G mobile systems that are spectrally efficient, there remains a question of whether 4G systems will solve the key problems of coverage, throughput, and cost. This talk will discuss next generation wireless systems taking insight and input from commercial drivers and needs. It will explore the "data crunch" issue driven by smartphones and social networking and highlight that spectrum allocation and the deployment of 4G/LTE will not alone solve the problem. Interestingly, this initiates a lot of new and interesting research problems that havn't been explored in any depth by the research community, including small cell (femtocell) technology and self organising network (SON) technology.

BIO:
Mark Reed is a leading researcher in the area of WCDMA receiver and network design with more than 18 years of experience with positions in the USA, Switzerland, and Australia. He received his B. Eng. (Honours) from RMIT in 1990 and Ph.D. in Engineering from University of South Australia in 2000. He is an Adjunct Assoc. Prof. at the Australian National University and a Principal Researcher and Project leader at NICTA where he has been since 2003 and leads a team on a research-inspired commercial project. Mark pioneered the area of iterative detection techniques for WCDMA base station receivers and has more than 60 publications and eight patent applications. He has a mix of real-world industrial experience as well as research experience where he continues to put his techniques into practice. Mark has previously performed research and developed real-time world- first Satellite-UMTS and mobile WiMAX demonstration systems. Recently Mark has lead a team to realize a real-time WCDMA Femtocell modem working at RF and tested against independent equipment. This realization contains world-first advanced receiver techniques that significantly improve the uplink throughput and range. Mark is a senior member of the IEEE and from 2005-2007 he was an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY..

Australian shift to the online environment

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released research "Australia in the digital economy: The shift to the online environment" (Communications report 2009–10 series Report 1, 11 November 2011). Unfortunately the report is not formatted for reading on-line. Here is the executive summary reformulated as HTML:

Summary

There is a growing body of evidence showing that more Australians are actively engaging in many aspects of the digital economy, facilitating existing and new forms of social and economic interaction. The following summary of key indictors provides insight into some aspects of the developing digital economy, specifically those which relate to take-up and use of the internet.

Connectivity

Many Australians today have access to the internet at several locations, with most having a broadband internet service in their home. At June 2010, 77 per cent of the population aged 14 years and over had access to the internet at home, 40 per cent at work and 15 per cent at locations other than home or work. Sixty-six per cent of persons 14 years and over had a home broadband service, up from 63 per cent at June 2009.

Of those Australians using the internet, the home and work environment remained the most common sites of internet use with 95 per cent of internet users using the internet at home and 46 per cent at their place of work during June 2010.

The increasing capacity of mobile networks and devices to support triple play services (voice, data and video) is also changing the dynamics of internet use by facilitating increased flexibility in terms of how and where Australians go online while at the same time complementing existing fixed-broadband networks. Thirteen per cent (2.4 million persons) of persons in Australia aged 14 years and over were estimated to have undertaken some form of activity online via their mobile phone during June 2010, compared to nine per cent (1.6 million persons) during June 2009.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also outlines the increasing significance of mobile networks as a complementary service in terms of providing Australians with access to the internet. At June 2010, there were 3.5 million mobile wireless broadband subscribers in Australia accessing the internet via a dongle or datacard connected to a computer, compared to 2.8 million at June 2009. In addition, 30 per cent of mobile phone handsets (6.8 million) were internet-enabled at June 2010. During the same period the number of fixed-broadband subscribers (e.g. DSL) remained fairly steady, further suggesting that mobile wireless broadband is growing in importance as a complementary broadband service.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—businesses employing one to 200 employees—continued to play a significant role in the development of the digital economy through take-up and application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to business processes and service delivery. At June 2010, 94 per cent of SMEs were connected to the internet with 99 per cent of these using a broadband service. Sixty-four per cent of SMEs used internet-enabled 3G mobile phones.

SMEs also used a range of other internet and IP based technologies and applications at June 2010, including web sites (61 per cent), VoIP (26 per cent of SMEs) and mobile email (25 per cent) with take-up of VoIP and mobile email experiencing the highest proportional increase since June 2009; 30 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

The growth in domain name registrations reflects the increasing use of the internet as a marketing and service delivery channel by individuals and organisations in Australia. At June 2010, there were 1.76 million second-level registered domain names compared with 1.42 million at June 2009, an increase of 24 per cent.¹

Capability

Over the past five years, the frequency of internet use in Australia steadily increased to the point where 28 per cent of the total Australian population aged 14 years and over were estimated to be ‘heavy’ internet users (online more than 15 hours a week) at June 2010. A further 27 per cent were considered to be ‘medium’ internet users (online between 7 and 15 hours a week) and 23 per cent ‘light’ internet users (online up to 7 hours a week).² The proportion of the population not using the internet on a weekly basis declined to 22 per cent at June 2010 from 33 per cent at June 2005.

While all age groups recorded significant increases in weekly internet users, persons aged 55–65 years and 65 years and over were still less likely to use the internet than other age groups. At June 2010, 55 per cent of persons aged 65 years or older and 27 per cent of persons aged 55–64 years did not use the internet on a weekly basis, compared to an average of 22 per cent for the total population aged 14 years or over.

Australians engaged in the digital economy through a range of online activities however communications, research, information, banking and finance and general browsing activities tended to dominate. During the month of June 2010, 79 per cent of persons using the internet via a computer went online for communication purposes (email, instant messaging or VoIP), 75 per cent for research and information purposes, 64 per cent for banking and finance related activities and 61 per cent general browsing.

While increasing numbers of Australians are using the internet via their mobile phone, the level and scope of online activities performed via mobiles was significantly lower in comparison to activities performed online by a computer. This was particularly the case in relation to e-commerce activities were only seven per cent and 19 per cent of mobile phone internet users went online via their mobile for shopping or banking purposes respectively during June 2010, compared to 28 per cent and 64 per cent for persons using the internet via computer.

Similarly, activities relating to communications, research/information and transactions featured prominently in the activities undertaken by Australian SMEs online. At June 2010, 98 per cent of online SMEs used the internet to communicate with customers and suppliers via email, 91 per cent looked for information about products and services, 88 per cent went online for banking purposes and 88 to look for suppliers, while 74 per cent received payments for goods and services online and 81 per cent made payments online.

Confidence

The internet is making access to information more convenient and efficient. As a result, the volume of information and content accessed by Australians via the internet has steadily increased over 2009–10. For example, during the June quarter of 2010, 155,503 terabytes of data were downloaded in Australia compared to 99,249 terabytes during the June quarter of 2009. Fixed-line networks accounted for 91 per cent of data downloaded during the June quarter of 2010.³

The participative web, encompassing social networking and user generated content (UGC), continues to be a major driving force in the increasing intensity of online participation. During June 2010, 8.7 million Australians accessed main stream social networking/UGC sites such as Facebook and YouTube from home, spending in total more than 41.5 million hours on these sites. Facebook continued to maintain its dominance of the social networking/UGC market in Australia, accounting for 81 per cent of time spent on social networking/UGC sites and 82 per cent of web pages viewed during June 2010. The business sector in Australia is slowly recognising the potential of social networking for marketing and business networking purposes. At June 2010, approximately 10 per cent of SMEs connected to the internet used online social network channels for business purposes such as advertising and awareness raising.

The internet has empowered many consumers economically by making it easier to locate goods and services and compare costs. The internet has also empowered businesses by enabling the development of new online markets, often with price differentiation between offline and online purchasing channels, which has in turn encouraged the continued growth of internet commerce in Australia. According to the ABS, income from the sale of goods and services online reached $123 billion in June 2009 compared with $81 billion in June 2008. (ABS data relating to June 2010 is not available as yet). Table 1 presents a summary of digital economy data in this report.

Table 1 Australia in the digital economy: summary metrics

Indicator	June 2009	June 2010
Connectivity
Proportion of population having ever used the internet at June*	88%	89%
Proportion of population with a broadband connection at home at June*	63%	66%
Proportion of population having used the internet via their mobile phone during June*	9%	13%
Proportion of online SMEs with broadband at June	96%	99%
Proportion of SMEs using internet-enabled 3G mobiles at June	62%	64%
Number of ‘.au’ domain name registrations at June†	1.42 million	1.76 million
Capability
‘Heavy’ internet users in the population* (>15 hours online a week) at June	26%	28%
Proportion of internet users undertaking communications activities online during June*	n/a	79%
Proportion of internet users undertaking research and information searches online during June*	76%	75%
Proportion of internet users undertaking banking or financial activities online during June*	n/a	64%

Confidence
Value of internet commerce at June‡	$123 billion	n/a
Number of web pages viewed from home during June	16.8 billion	17.2 billion
Number of persons accessing social networking/UGC sites from home during June	8.3 million	8.7 million
Number of hours spent on social networking/UGC sites at home during June	32.1 million	41.5 million
Number of Australians accessing main online news sites from home during June	5.9 million	6.1 million
Volume of data downloaded via the internet (terabytes) during June quarter	99,249	155,503
Proportion of internet users buying or selling online during June*	28%

*Persons 14 years and over. †Excludes domain names registered under ‘.gov.au’.

‡Defined as the value of goods/services purchased or ordered online regardless of whether paid for online. n/a = Not available.

Note: Web metric data relates to persons two years and over using a broadband service from home.

1 Excludes ‘.gov.au’. Within the .au domain, there are several second level domains (2LDs). Each serves a specific type of enterprise. For example, ‘.com.au’ serves commercial organisations and ‘.edu.au’ services educational institutions. For a full list of second level domains, see www.auda.org.au/domains/au-domains/.

2 Terms relating to ‘heavy,’ ‘medium’ and ‘light’ defined by Roy Morgan Single Source, June 2010.

3 Comparative data is not available for June 2009 as ABS did not collect volume of data downloaded by access technology prior to the December quarter of 2009.