Electronic communications and IEEE members

January 1996 is the one-year anniversary of our Web presence. One year ago The Institute went live on the Web. Now, one year later, we have a new address, or URL (Uniform Resource Locator): " http://www.institute.ieee.org/ti.html ". To view this column directly on its Web page, use "http://www.institute.ieee.org/INST/jan96/inf_hwy.html".

The IEEE is learning how to find out what our members need. This is not an easy task, given the technical, geographic and personal diversity of our membership. Recently the IEEE set up an office of institutional research with Henry Shein as the director. We decided to ask his help in designing a questionnaire on electronic communications (EC). Tom Brisco and his staff in our EC department got together with Henry, and the result was a survey of about 30 questions sent to a thousand members selected randomly. The sample includes all U.S. regions, age groups and employment categories. The preliminary results are in, and the following comments are based on about 300 responses.

You might wonder whether the results of a survey sent to members about their familiarity with, and use of, electronic communications would be biased because those more familiar with this technology would be more likely to respond than those who were less familiar. To check for bias, I compared the results of our EC survey with the 1994 IEEE member survey results. This survey was sent to about five times as many members as our survey and included questions on electronic communications as a subset. I see very similar trends in the two surveys and conclude that there is not a computer-user bias in our survey.

WHY A SURVEY?   To find out what EC services you are asking the IEEE to provide and what level of awareness and training in EC techniques you say you have. Bottom line: most IEEE members are computer users and are likely ahead of most other segments of the general population. There is a clear member need for the IEEE to continue to develop EC services. There is also a clear message that members expect the IEEE to offer high-quality, secure service. Let's look at the trend of the results in some specific areas. You can view the actual survey results on the Web -- see the end of this column.

Access to a computer.   The overwhelming majority (about 90 percent) of respondents report access to a computer at office and home. The most common types of operating systems: PC/Win- dows, followed by Mac, and then Unix. There is a higher proportion of Unix systems at work relative to home.

Access to a modem.   Of those reporting computer access, more than half have access to a modem at the office and more than three-quarters at home. The most common modem speed is 14.4 kb/s, followed by 28.8 kb/s. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) access is pretty minimal at present and almost entirely restricted to the office.

E-mail usage.   Three-quarters of respondents report that they use e-mail at either their home and/or the office. Of these, about half have access in both places, and most of the rest have the access at work.

Internet access.   Two-thirds report Internet access at the office. Of these, about two-thirds have full Internet access (FIA) and the rest have either e-mail only or partial Internet access. Of those without access, one-third plan to obtain access in the future. At home, the proportions are one-half, one-fifth and one-third. When asked about the amount per month they were willing to pay for FIA, the responses were split as follows: about half, US$5-US$10; a quarter, US$10-US$30; most of the rest, nothing. A very few were prepared to pay more than US$30.

Internet usage.   Let's look at the number of hours each month that respondents say they access the Internet. First, at work: one-third do not access at all, one-third for less than 10 hours, one-sixth between 10 and 30 hours, and less than one-sixth for more than 30 hours. Within the home, usage follows a similar pattern but at a somewhat lower level.

International access.   Half the respondents say that international access is important; fewer than one-third say it is unimportant.

Travel access.   Half indicate a desire for access while traveling; one-third indicate no such desire (and the rest do not travel).

IEEE SERVICES.   Several questions relate to current and potential IEEE electronic services. Here are the responses.

Current services.   Are members familiar with current IEEE Internet services? The overwhelming answer is no. This is not surprising, since most of these services are only just getting started. However, the IEEE needs to focus on letting you -- the member -- know about new Internet services. One of those services is the set of IEEE Web pages where new Internet services are most likely to be described. Only a fifth of respondents indicate they have accessed these pages, whereas about half of the respondents have access capability at either home or work.

Ordering.   Only a sixth have ordered products electronically, but virtually all of those were satisfied with this kind of ordering capability. When asked if they would order from IEEE electronically, half said yes; a sixth, no; and close to half were unsure. This latter number is not surprising since most respondents have no experience with this method.

Membership renewal.   About half of the respondents indicated a desire to renew their IEEE membership electronically.

Information.   When asked if IEEE should offer more information electronically, about half said yes, with printing; very few said yes to on-line only or not at all; and a quarter were unsure. The items most often checked were abstracts and indexes, journals and newsletters.

Discussions.   More than half indicated a desire to have electronic discussion forums on specific areas of interest. Two-thirds expect to use the Internet to communicate with other engineers.

On-line directory.   Respondents were fairly evenly divided when asked if they wanted to be listed in an on-line directory (choices were yes, no, and undecided). The no's were overwhelming, if such a listing were to be associated with a cost.

CONCERNS.   On the question of security and confidentiality issues when using the Internet, respondents indicated that these were major concerns. More than half were very much concerned and a third more were somewhat concerned with security. The corresponding proportions for confidentiality were one-half and one-third. This suggests that the IEEE needs to ensure that future transactions over the Internet should be carefully planned to meet the expectations of an informed membership.

SURVEY RESULTS.   I used preliminary results of the survey, available Nov. 7. More recent results are posted on the Web at " http://www.institute.ieee.org/INST/jan96/ecsurvey.html " if you want to see the full and latest details.