The use of e-mail for personal and business communication is increasingly widespread. E-mail is identified in many studies of Internet use as the most used and most useful application of the Internet. E-mail applications include personal correspondence, workplace communications, support for electronic commerce, and dissemination of news.
CIRCIT's `E-Mail for All' project focused on identifying gaps in current market directions and government policy that may provide barriers to universal take up of e-mail as a domestic communications channel.
A number of factors affect the universal applicability of e-mail as a communications channel, for example the varying levels of functional literacy in the community at large. A further distinction must be made between universal access to e-mail, and universal use of e-mail.
The project examined the following questions:
The report concludes with recommendations for market development and government policy intervention to increase the use of e-mail in the community.
Here is the CIRCIT report E-mail for All. It is a PDF file, 290 Kb in size.
You will need the Acrobat Reader to view it. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, it is available for free from the Adobe site. Here is the download page for Acrobat Reader 5.
CIRCIT is the Centre for International Research on Communication and Informational Technologies. It was set up in 1989 to provide independent research and education on information and communication services for all sectors of society. CIRCIT joined RMIT University in 1998, but unfortunately due to the industry downturn CIRCIT will be closed in July 2002.