It's fairly easy to find information and discuss how individuals or businesses are using the Internet, but finding out what community organisations are doing is much harder. LibraryTechNZ though has found a US study:

Although research has urged scholars and practitioners to develop the Internet as a democratic tool, little research has examined how users actually use the Internet and how the Internet is conceptualized by those who create its content — particularly in the non–profit sector where questions of democracy, interconnected communication and information gathering are often central to survival. This research surveys 688 people associated with non–profit organizations in the United States to better understand their perceptions and uses of the Internet as a tool for social change.

[Via LibraryTechNZ: The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web.]

The paper, The Internet as a tool for democracy? A survey of non-profit Internet decision-makers and Web users, is written in academic speak. It's definitely not an easy read. But here's what it's about:

With all of the possible benefits that using the Internet can bring, the question clearly becomes: are non–profits actually using — and benefiting from — the Internet? How do they gauge the efficacy of their actions? Are the utopian projections of a flourishing online community translating to off–line action? And, how do those who actually use the technology feel about the benefits of the Internet? Is there a disconnect between those that create online content and others? It is to these questions that this research now turns.

I skipped the body of the report and headed straight to the Conclusions, where I found these snippets particularly interesting:

[1] Thus, the Internet appeared to be primarily a tool for gathering and providing information for non–profit organizations, rather than contact with members, fund–raising or promotion. This runs counter to much earlier research espousing limitless potential for connectivity. This research found that any promise of an interconnected and informative sphere of online communication did not manifest itself in practice. There was little evidence of online communication between the non–profit and those associated with it and many of these same individuals revealed a preference for telephone contact. This may suggest that individuals are seeking more personalized means of communication.

[2] While those responsible for creating content online were more likely to conduct research and use the Internet for information, they were not very adept at providing their own information through their own organizations’ Web site. The overwhelming majority of non–profits didn’t offer basic information to members, such as contact information for legislators, past and current newsletters, employment opportunities or protest rally information. An argument could be made that these factors may not be relevant or appropriate for some non–profits but this finding co–existed with the fact that the near totality of Internet content creators felt strongly that the Internet was an effective tool for activism and democracy; allowed for communication with members; made their organization more visible and credible and left those without a Web site at a decided disadvantage.

The Conclusions mention a disconnect between the value the not-for-profits perceive from the Internet and their own use of it. They suggest perhaps fear or apathy as possible reasons for this. Even though I haven't actually read the report itself, I'd suggest another possibility.

Did you ever learn a foreign language? If so, you'll know the experience of knowing how to 'read French but not speak it'. There's a huge leap between the relatively passive understanding of something and the much more active use of that thing.

And that's something we address in the Webguide and this Groupings blog.

What do you think?

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Delicious is a great way to store bookmarks for web pages online. But actually, it does a lot more too, as C. Wess Daniels explains in his blog post Tips for Using Delicious In (Doctoral) Research:

Delicious at its very core is a site that stores websites you’ve bookmarked online, so you can get at them from any computer, but that’s just the beginning. For those of you who don’t really know much about delicious but are interested in setting it up, you can check out my presentation on what it is, why to use it and how to setup an account, or you can watch the far more clever video “how to explain delicious to your parents (also see their help page). Basically, what you need to know is if you are doing any kind of research where you use the web frequently you’ll find delicious very helpful.

Visit his post to read more about how he handles tags, notes, keywords, and also RSS feeds to help with his research.

[Via The Balcony: del.icio.us, RSS, and DEVONthink.]