You can’t sell Ice in the Arctic or Guitar lessons to Jimmy Page. Why then do we all seem to think we can stitch together products out of imaginary demographics and good intentions.

.Tonight I plunge the depths of Twitter to see how just one set of web users outside of the tech punditry use the Internet.

To put this into context, none of the people who participated knew anything about this article except that it had something to do with a blogging project and that the question was, “How do you commonly use the Internet?” Surprisingly, many of the responses are amazingly similar. Where possible, I’ve tried to include some background to give context to this gallop poll.

For those in a hurry, skip down to the Web 2.0 Roundup for the summary.

Ray Garraud

I most commonly use the internet to research information (about current affairs, politics and technology) blog, and interact with friends via social networks. Over the years, my internet usage has evolved from basic information gathering a few times a week to where I’m now logged on for several hours a day. What I find most interesting about the internet is the vast amount of knowledge and value that can be derived from interacting with others.

Bio

Ray Garraud has over 18 years of diverse business, management and entrepreneurial experience, coupled with knowledge, enthusiasm, and a strong understanding of organizational dynamics. He resides in NY and received both his Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees from NYIT . A divorced father of 3 and eternal optimist-realist, Ray’s hobbies include, Amateur Radio, technology and the pursuit of ideas and activities that add value, personally and professionally.

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Jim Goldstein

I split my use of the internet between:

1. Work. As part of my job as a web strategist I’m monitoring trends, evaluating best practices, researching technologies and implementing creative use of evaluated technologies (ideally leveraging existing or up and coming trends).

2. Managing/marketing my photography and online business endeavors (site statistics, photo publishing, podcasting, social networking, research, etc.)
Note: This includes blogging

3. Getting immediate information about news, finance, trends, etc.

Bio

A member of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) since 2007 and contributing photographer to Acclaim Images, Jim produces the highest quality photography for both commercial clients and fine art photography collectors. Jim’s photography has been featured on Surfmag.com, SFGate.com, Future Snowboarding magazine, and a variety of other publications. In addition many of his photographs have been honored with awards and accolaids in the Environmental Photography Invitational and Outdoor Photographer magazine.

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Andrew Tobin

I most commonly use the internet for entertainment and as a resource to keep up to date with what is going on in programming and new technologies – as well as googlefix to help debug and work through issues for my job.

Bio

I work in IT. In fact I am labelled a programmer/developer. I don’t know how accurate that is since primarily I work in Access *ducks*. I am surrounded by people who believe that computers should be able to handle every aspect of their job and do not realise that this would make them redundant. They instead get incredibly frustrated and mistreat their systems in a variety of whacky and imaginative ways. Well not really. Someone took a cricket bat to a computer once

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Rogelio Umana

60% Research, inspiration and communication for work. 30% Reading feeds, Blogging and Twittering. 10% Staying in touch with friends and family.

Bio

From Honduras to Costa Rica riding the advertising train. Final destination… Who knows?

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Mike Taylor

The Internet is my work place (I am a full time tele-commuter), my source of entertainment (pod casts, WoW, blogs) and also how I connect to all my friends.

So my various computers are doing something linked via the internet every minute.

From His Site…

My job at OSAF is Release/Build Engineer – so that means I’ll be jumping head-long back into the world of SCM. So expect to be hearing about various aspects of the tools found in the open source sphere that deal with SCM: Bugzilla, Tinderbox, Bonsai, et.al.

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Sameer Vasta

I find it difficult to separate the internet from life in general. As a web worker, my career is dependent on the web: it is where I meet my clients, make connections with other workers, interact with my peers, and do my actual work.

My use of the internet, therefore, can not be limited to certain activities — social networking, communication, collaborative document creation, blogging, research all are part of what I do on a regular basis — but instead are the
launch-pad of all my meatspace activities, as well as the follow-up area of those same activities. So to answer a question like ‘how do I most commonly use the internet’, the best answer I can give is that I use it to ‘live’.

Bio

My name is Sameer Vasta, but my friends call me Vasta. If you’re reading this, you can be my friend, but only if you’re nice. I’m a writer with experience in public relations and online interaction design

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Len Edgerly

I’m using the Internet right now, at 2 a.m., instead of sleeping, which illustrates the irresistible allure this screen has for me. I am drawn most powerfully these days to Twitter, Google Reader, my e-mail inbox, and, less powerfully so far, Facebook. In each of those places I may find something new, something important for my work, or some new connection to someone I’m getting to know through the Internet.

Often these four make up an endless loop, because in the time I spend at any one of them, new stuff will have arrived at the other three, and any time I’ve been away I feel the pull of checking in again, to find out What’s New. I love it, even as I have to throttle back the intensity from time to time. As now, when I’ll go back to bed for a few more hours of sleep, then wake up eager to bring this screen back to life and find out what was new while I was sleeping.

Bio

Poet, retired gas exec, podcaster, arts policy wonk

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Charo Nuguid

I mostly use the internet for research and to get inspiration for my creative writing.

You can’t believe how urban legends can be used to start the imagination running for a poem or prose!

Aside from that, I use it mainly for communication. LIke… TWITTER.

Bio

Hello! I’m the Head Geekette. At least, that’s how I’m known in cyberspace. My semi-real name is Charo Nuguid. I graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in BS Mathematics (major in Actuarial Science).

I’m connected with Orange and Bronze Software Labs as a senior software engineer and IT trainor specializing in Java technologies, software design, security, and enterprise web applications.

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Web 2.0 Roundup

Lets take a look at the scoreboard.

• Work [6]
• Research [5]
• Blogging [5]
• Interaction [5]
• Social Networks [4]
• News/Entertainment [3]
• Games [1]

Most of the people that I talked to are deeply invested in the web, which probably skewed their results. However, the fields they belong to are extremely varied. What is most striking is how many of them use the Internet for research. Is it any wonder that Wikipedia is one of the most used applications on the web?

While social networking was often mentioned, it was not nearly as emphasized as one would believe it should be considering the share number of social networks hitting the market these days. What seemed to be on everyone’s mind was Work, Research and “Interaction”. Which, makes a lot of sense.

The web, at its most fundamental level, is a utility that is supposed to make life easier. Gathering information and disseminating it to those we care about are two of the biggest hurdles in our lives. We go to school, we go to work, we join clubs, we make phone calls, we read books, we write them. All of these activities flow around the idea that we are information brokers.

Of course, this is no where near enough evidence to draw conclusions about the web at large, but it is a good start. What we can say is that most of the Web 2.0 nonsense that we have come to believe is so important wasn’t even mentioned.

Something to think about until next time…

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