Reports

PIC has studied the changes in Catalan society brought on by the use of the internet, in all areas of social life, business and administration. It has also studied society as a whole, the economy and the institutions in order to establish the relationship between technology and society.

PIC has involved some forty researchers, and each team has had a project director. A total of 15,390 face-to-face and 40,400 virtual interviews have been carried out. The results are to be made public and available to everyone. They are to be published on the IN3's website (several thousand pages and several thousand statistical tables) between October 2007 to January 2008. 7 volumes summarising and analysing the fundamental parts of each project are also to be published. The 7 volumes will be published in both Spanish and Catalan by Ariel between October 2007 and May 2008. The project has been funded in its entirety by various Catalan Government departments, and coordinated by the President's Office and the Department of Universities.

PIC was initially supported by President Pujol. Subsequently, President Maragall and President Montilla continued to support it and increased its funding.

The PIC has been handed over formally to President Montilla the 26 of June 2007 and, subsequently, for it to be presented to the scientific community and the communication media.

PIC, at least in quantitative terms, is the largest social sciences research project ever carried out in Catalonia, the most important research project into the information society carried out to date in Spain, and one of the most important in Europe.

PIC Network Society 

This is a study of people's use of internet and the effects this use has on the behaviour, attitudes and social relations of the Catalans. It is a based on a questionnaire survey carried out in interviews with a sample of 3,005 people, who were statistically representative of the population of Catalonia. These interviews took place in the spring of 2002 and were subsequently updated with data from other sources. The survey involved 170 questions, which produced 1000 variables. The relationships between these variables were then analysed. The authors of the study, report and book are Manuel Castells, Imma Tubella, Teresa Sancho and Meritxell Roca, who have been able to count on the collaboration of Isabel Díaz de Isla and Professor Barry Wellman, from the University of Toronto.

The study shows that:

• Use of the internet has quickly spread in Catalonia over the last decade. The digital divide has been reduced. Currently, some 41.5% are frequent users of the internet and 53.9% have used it in the last three months. The spread of broadband has been even more remarkable. With respect to companies, Catalonia is the leading part of Europe in terms of broadband; and sixth in terms of homes. The main difference in the frequency of use is due to age. In the over-50s, the proportion of users is less than 10%, whereas it reaches 75% in the under-30s. There are more mobile telephone lines in Catalonia than people.
• Catalonia is an uninformed information society. Almost 60% of adults have not completed their secondary studies. Thus, many of them do not know what to do with the internet. 39% of the population does not use or want to use the internet because they do not see its value. This group are, fundamentally, people over the age of 50. There is a clear generational gap in terms of adapting to the information society. This is an increasingly important social problem, as the young population, including young immigrants, live in a technological universe that differs from that of their elders; whilst this older generation still has an important influence on politics and the management of society.
• The internet does not reduce levels of sociability or increase isolation. On the contrary, and backed by the results of international research, internet users are seen to be more sociable, more active, to have intense family and personal relationships and take part more in society. The internet increases sociability. Face-to-face and virtual relationships are strengthened mutually.
• The study analyses the construction of identity and assesses the role of the internet in this process. The main source of people's identity is the family, followed by 'oneself'. Language, nation, territory or religion play a subordinate role in terms of the general population's awareness of identity. The young, despite the vast majority being able to read and write in Catalan, use Spanish more than Catalan in their relations with family and friends. However, the feeling of belonging to Catalonia is also present in 37.5% of the population, whilst the feeling of being Spanish is only seen in 19.7% and 40% see themselves as being both Spanish and Catalan equally. Therefore, there seems to have been a certain diluting of the Catalan resistance identity following the relative normalisation of cultural expression in Catalonia. In other words, one no longer needs to affirm one's Catalan identity. However, there is a minority group, but a very active one, representing nearly 20% of the population, which defines itself as firmly Catalan nationalist. It is a young, professional and educated group and that which is most active on the internet; ie, the use of the internet is associated to a project to construct Catalan identity in terms of a new modernity for Catalonia as an independent culture.
• The internet enables autonomous projects for people: personal autonomy, professional autonomy, autonomy in management of their body, communicational autonomy, enterprising autonomy, and socio-political autonomy. The study shows that the more independent and capable people are in developing projects, the more they will use the internet. And the more they use the internet, the more autonomy they can achieve. The internet is a platform for expression of enterprise, initiative and freedom.
• Catalan society does not believe in politics or politicians. Nonetheless, there is a great interest in current affairs around the world and a desire to get involved in these through civil society's self-organisation and mobilisation. The internet has become an important tool in this socio-political autonomy.

Schooling in the Network Society: Internet in primary and secondary education 

The research identified and analysed the incorporation of the internet into primary and secondary education in Catalonia and its relations to the organisation, culture and educational practices at the schools. It was based on questionnaires surveying a sample of 350 schools, a representative sample of all the public and private primary and secondary schools in Catalonia. The survey required the production of a total of 350 files on the schools and 9,876 questionnaires distributed, by group, as follows: 700 school directors, 350 ICT coordinating teaching staff, 2,187 teaching staff and 6,639 students.

Key results:

• The vast majority of primary and secondary school teachers and students in Catalonia access the internet in their daily life, are interested in the tool and consider it important for education. Nonetheless, the presence of internet in the classroom is very low in comparison to the use made of it by teachers and students outside of school. This low level of use of the internet is also highlighted in terms of the relationships within the school community, and between the school and parents in particular.
• Despite the sustained increase in the provision of infrastructures and equipment (at the end of the academic year 2005-06, the number of students per computer was expected to reach 6.43 in public schools), until very recently the majority of computers with an internet connection were to be found in the computer studies classrooms to which students had much less access than they did to their own classroom. This has been one of the major material impediments to a greater generalisation of the use of the net in schools.
• The frequency and the way in which students use the internet in their tasks in the classroom depends greatly on the way in which the teachers integrate these tools into their teaching. The internet is used, above all, to prepare teaching activities and to search for information relating to the different subjects. Students principally use it for their homework and when preparing projects for school. However, the presence of the internet in school activities as a tool for collaboration between teachers and students, and in the development of innovative projects is conspicuous by its absence. In short, teachers tend to use the internet to maintain the traditional teaching patterns, rather than trying to use it to innovate.
• A good number of school directors do not prioritise the integration of ICT and the internet for educational ends. Indeed, even when this is made a priority, school directors are ill-prepared to lead this process and to influence the educational practices in use in the schools they are responsible for. This problem can be seen in both public and private schools.
• The teaching staff is the key element in the incorporation of the internet into school education. The teaching staff using the internet most frequently and diversely with their students have a good level of skills in the instrumental use of ICT, have received training in the educational use of the internet, see the net as being useful in terms of the educational aims and adopt a form of personalised educational practices that encourage active participation of students in decisions respecting their own learning process, teamwork and opening up to the surrounding environment.
• We have not found any evidence of differences in the use of internet at schools affecting students' academic results. However, we have found differences in terms of the use of internet at home. The best performing students access the internet more outside school than less successful students do; but, moreover, their academic results affect the way in which they use the net outside school. Students who do not have any academic problems use the internet for school work more than others when they are at home. Likewise, greater use of the internet by their parents leads to more access by their children, and a greater use of the internet at home for school work.
• Thus, the work currently underway in primary and secondary schools does not yet provide students with the skills needed to take advantage of the information networks and, as a consequence, does not make enough of a contribution to bridging the 'digital divide' between students, which is the result of the differences generated in their social and family circles.

PIC Communication 

The use and consumption of communication media are changing in Catalonia and some of these changes can be attributed to the penetration and implantation of information and communication technology (ICT), and above all the internet. The first warning came in 2002, when the report entitled Catalunya societat xarxa (Catalonia Network Society) revealed that 16.6% of those who surfed the internet watched less television and, of these, 61.7% were under 30. Now, five years later, with 54% of the Catalan population using the internet, the PIC Communication research has analysed the processes modifying communication practices in Catalonia and identified the most important.

The starting point was the definition of a transition dynamic, in which the traditional information and communication practices coexist with an active renewal of uses and strategies, characterised by the tendency to move towards autonomous and personalised management of communication practices. Thus, a good part of the attention was focused on the behaviour of the young, now that the levels of internet use among children, adolescents and the young in Catalonia have almost reached saturation point: 83% of boys and girls between 10 and 14 use the internet, as do 88% of those between 16 and 25.

The research has been designed in terms of an extensive self-chosen focus group, made up of people who, for the most part, are experienced and intensive users of the internet in Catalonia. Interpretation of the results was based on the trends seen in information and communication practices and taking into account the socio-demographic make-up and experience of those interviewed.

• The PIC Communication research has confirmed the gradual development of new channels and forms of information, communication and entertainment which allow for fast, effective and active participation, at a personal level, in the management of the growing amount and diversity of contents. All this is possible thanks to the use of applications that increase the opportunities to generate, modify, distribute, share, exchange and consume all kinds of files containing text, images or sound.
  • 33% of those interviewed uploaded photographs and videos to the internet;
  • 25% of those interviewed took part in blogs;
  • 18% of those interviewed had their own blog.
• Thus, there are warning signs in terms of adults' (those over 30) introduction to the use of ICT, which is almost exclusively a practical use at work. Subsequently, there will be a gradual integration of ICT into home and family life. The result of this process is the generation of a technological environment in which the young (those under 31 and, above all, those under 18) develop their lives.
• PIC Communication has been able to define the transformation dynamic affecting information and communication practices, characterised by:
  • The incorporation of the use of ICT in the home changing the ways we consume the traditional communication media, even during prime time.
  • The young using internet as a platform for initiation in, experimentation with and exploitation of the possibilities offered by ICT for active participation and connectivity.
  • A link established between internet at home and a general rise in consumption of content and communication media.
  • The gradual and/or partial replacement of traditional image-based communication media and family consumption, above all of television, for individual, flexible, personalised and specialised management of all kinds of content.
• The internet in homes changes the use and consumption of traditional communication media and opens up new channels. Age and experience lead to uses becoming more specialised and diversified and open up new perspectives in a multi-channel, multi-platform universe.

PIC Health 

The use of internet and IT in the health sector has been studied with thousands of interviews over the internet and in person. Specifically, the focuses for study have been the Catalan Health Institute in its entirety, Barcelona's Hospital Clínic, Barcelona's Guild of Doctors, the nurses, pharmacists and users of the health system, patients' associations and healthcare websites in Catalonia. There have also been case studies of the pioneering experiences in the development of IT for health with the Shared Clinical History project in the Osona area, in Palamós, Barcelona, Sabadell and Tarragona.

The study and report have been produced by Manuel Castells, Francisco Lupiañez, Josefa Sanchez and Francesc Saigi.

Essentially, the study has shown:

• That professionals are willing to use the internet, but limit its use in direct interaction with patients.
• The importance of the role of ICT in the efficient reorganisation of the health system.
• The need to introduce technology, organise the network of healthcare institutions, and train and develop adequate human resources throughout.
• The need to find adequate models for financing and managing health in the new technological environment.
• The important technological progress seen in clinical practice and tele-medicine; in particular, in tele-diagnostic imaging.
• The difficulty in changing the technological system without in-depth changes to the working relationship and organisational management models.
• The lack of integration of patients in electronic communication systems.
• Patients' growing interest in healthcare uses of internet.
• The lack of interactivity in healthcare websites.
• The increasingly important role of patients' association in health information and self-management.
• The complex relationship between public and private practice in a mixed system such as the Catalan system.
• The success of technological innovation projects such as the pharmaceutical card and networked information in large hospitals, as well as the difficult implantation of the Shared Clinical History project, which would represent an authentic revolution in health management.
• The generally positive attitude of professionals and patients in terms of the use of internet and computer networks in the health system.

PIC Companies 

The main aim of The Network Company in Catalonia. ICT, productivity, competitiveness, salaries and profits in Catalan companies research project was to analyse the changes in business activities linked to investment in and use of information and communication technology (ICT). Basically, we wanted to see whether the consolidation of a new strategic, organisational and business activity model, linked to investment in and use of ICT (the network company), led to significant changes in the behavioural patterns of business results, and in productivity, competitiveness, employee salaries and profits in particular.

Empirical tests of the working hypothesis were carried out using the data from a survey, collected in face-to-face interviews and a questionnaire that lasted an hour with a representative sample of 2,038 Catalan companies, organised in terms of sector and size. The overall significance of this sample was around +/-2%, and the significance of the sub-samples by sector and size around +/-5%. The fieldwork was carried out between the months of January and May 2003. The relatively complex questionnaire included 128 questions and was answered by businesspeople and directors with an overall awareness of the companies' activities. The data obtained from the questionnaire was added to with economic and financial information on the companies in the sample, available from the Company Register. The aim of the inclusion of these extra variables was to provide important, public information to the somewhat qualitative data from the questionnaire, including accounting indicators and records on the evolution of the business. Once the answers to the questionnaire had been codified and their consistency analysed, we built a database containing the values of the items coming from the questionnaire and those obtained from the financial and accounting information. Then, we created new variables, some from the initial values and others combining a number of variables to produce indicators. Thus, the analysis carried out on the over 500 variables produced a matrix of some one million data entries on Catalan companies.

Some results from the research:

• At the start of the 21st century, Catalan companies are experiencing a period of transition. They are in the midst of a period of consolidation of a new kind of economy, based on the use of the growing capabilities of knowledge and digital technology in a context of global production, and on the maintenance of traditional productive and organisational structures from the industrial and services economy. We need to highlight three elements, among others, which have placed limits on this transition process.
  • Firstly, the productive fabric in Catalonia is characterised by business activities that still focus greatly on the domestic market and that do not look abroad. From the data obtained, less than 10% (7.8%) of Catalan companies sell more than a third of their production outside Spain.
  • Secondly, the average level of training in Catalan companies is, frankly, something that needs to be improved. Although company directors generally have university studies (53%, as opposed to 38% with secondary studies and 8% with primary studies), the average level of non-direction employee studies is secondary education (in 53.7% of cases), followed, more or less equally, by university studies (21.5%) and primary education (22.4%). Likewise, we have seen that around 20% of Catalan companies have lifelong or custom-made training programmes, which are usually face-to-face (as opposed to online).
  • Thirdly, we have seen that Catalan companies are well-equipped in terms of digital technology, although the level of use of ICT is low. We would highlight the fact that nearly 91% of Catalan companies are connected to the internet, that 87.4% have email, and 46.1% a web page. Nevertheless, only 21.7% make purchases over the internet and 11% sell using e-commerce. Indeed, taking into account the uses made of ICT by companies in each of the areas of the value chain, we can conclude that the level of business use of ICT could definitely be improved upon. 71.7% of Catalan companies do not use ICT to any great degree. This lack of use is highlighted by the fact that there is no technological system in the operative (production and suppliers/distributors), marketing, organisational or Human Resources (basic and complex) areas, or, if there is, only in the case of one of the five. With respect to the new media, 24.2% of all companies have systems for two or three of the five areas. Finally, 4.1% of Catalan companies have systems for four or five of the aforementioned value elements (advanced use).
• With respect to the impact of investment in and use of ICT, there are no signs of a direct relationship between digital innovation processes and the results at Catalan companies. Indeed, we have had to look at other non-technological factors in co-innovation processes to see any material improvements, both in terms of companies (productivity, competitiveness and performance) and employees (salaries). Thus, we have had to segment the Catalan productive fabric in search of those organisations with digital technology co-innovation and organisation processes and frequent and intensive use of knowledge in order to find any significant impact on the main business results. This is probably the case because the Catalan economy is, currently, structured in terms of dual production:
  • On the one hand, the majority of the productive fabric (around 80%) which does not make intensive use of ICT could make clear improvements in terms of the level of training of its employees; it has inflexible productive and organisational structures; its employees have low levels of autonomy and little capacity to take decisions, and innovative processes are still infrequent. These companies, which are not limited to one particular size or activity, have an extensive model for growth; ie, they based their dynamic for expansion on the long term, in terms of an increase in factors and, in particular, in low-skilled workers. It is for this very reason that the rate of growth in workers' productivity in Catalonia is increasing at such worrying levels and, in a competitive context dominated by globalisation, what makes the problems of competitiveness so important.
  • However, there is a small number of companies (around 20%) which base their growth potential on interaction between human capital, reorientation of production and organisation of work, and a dynamic for continuous innovation, especially in digital technology, but also in terms of human resources management. It is, in fact, this group of companies, a much smaller group than the former, but with a much greater potential for long-term growth, which will determine the future favourable evolution of efficiency, competitiveness, salaries, and performance in our productive fabric.

PIC Universities 

The Projecte Internet Catalonia, Universities subproject, The university in the network society: Internet uses in the higher education system in Catalonia, starts a new research period in March 2005 with the aim of conducting an extensive quantitative and qualitative study into internet uses in the Catalan university system. The population being studied are the teachers and students at the eight public Catalan universities (UB, UAB, UPC, UPF, URV, UdG, UdL and UOC). The aim of the study is to detect and assess internet uses by the university community as a whole and to observe the transformations that these uses have brought about in the university teaching-learning process.

Data have been collected in an online survey, sent by e-mail, offered by the institution and supplied to the research team by the universities, following the ruling by the Catalan Data Protection Agency.

• Survey via e-mail: Students and teachers at the UB, UAB, UPC, UPF, URV, UdG, UdL and UOC (170,995 students, 14,548 lecturers).
• High level of participation in the survey: Between 7% and 38% of students (28,942) and between 8% and 48% of lecturers (2,964).
• Random sample by quota: Population proportions of lecturers and students in the Catalan university system.
• Very slight sample errors: Around 0.66% for students and around 1.95% for lecturers.
• Qualitative complement: 52 semi-scripted in-depth interviews with institutional managers (over 60 hours).

The following is a summary of the main results obtained from this research:

• The university group studied (students and lecturers) has a high level of expertise in computer skills and internet use compared with the rest of the Catalan population. Some 82% of students have over 5 years' experience in internet use and 81.76% of lecturers over 7.
• Almost all members of the two groups have their own computer with internet broadband connection and go online every day.
• The university community uses the internet intensively in its everyday activities. Differences regarding gender, age and study environment are detected.
• Changes are observed in the social habits among the university community as a result of internet use that favour working and studying from home, reading the digital press, listening to music and having contact with friends, watching less television or not doing anything, to name but a few.
• There is a favourable predisposition towards internet use in the educational process. Around 73.94% of students state that they are prepared to learn with the internet and 61.65% of lecturers to teach with the internet.
• Some 53.80% of students have studied subjects that have incorporated the internet and 45.98% of lecturers have given classes that have incorporated the internet.
• The lecturers state that there is a lack institutional strategy in the introduction of the internet and 48.71% call for more recognition and support for those who decide to make active use of the internet in teaching.
• Around 70.90% of students and 51.75% of lecturers consider that internet use favours the teaching and learning process.
• The most widely used tools in teaching are e-mail and information search websites, followed a long way behind by the use of forums. The use of web 2.0 tools is very low.
• Around 61.19% students and 44.97% of lecturers are in favour of developing the range of courses with intensive use of the internet.
• Some 63.29% of students call for courses to learn through the use of the net and 52.22% of lecturers to teach using the internet.
• Around 70% of lecturers and 50% of students state that they make extensive use of the digital catalogue at their university library.

The main conclusions are:

• The expert and widespread use of the internet facilitates maximum use of the social and educational potential of the net. Today, access is not a problem for the Catalan university community, but the simple communicative and information search use of the internet is a problem. There is a need for training in expert use of the net by university students.
• Catalan universities have passed the initial internet introduction stage in administrative areas, but they are now undergoing the introduction to the net stage in teaching and learning processes. In this sense, there is a lack of institutional strategy. Only the dynamics of the EEES seem to favour it.
• The hybrid teaching modality (a mixture of face-to-face and non-face-to-face) shows a high transformation potential that is still to be used. This modality contains values such as autonomy and the personalisation of teaching and time management. These values are also found in the virtual training modality.
• There is a need to develop training, for students and lecturers alike, in collaborative education methodologies through the net, while establishing institutional strategies for educational use on the net and incentives and recognition for lecturers who implement them.
• Fostering the transformation potential of coordinated work and the exchange of experiences between universities in the Catalan system regarding the teaching use of the internet to tackle technological changes – free software, platforms, etc. – and educational changes – innovative methodologies, open contents on the net, collaborative environments, etc. Acting as a system increases the transformation potential of the net and allows it to be more competitive within the current global university training framework.

PIC Administration 

The UOC has published the second part of the research report on e-administration produced as part of Project Internet Catalonia. The team for this second phase of PIC-Administration was made up of Eduard Aibar, Project Director and the UOC's Vice-Rector for Research, and IN3 researchers Ferran Urgell and Yanina Welp. The research began in June 2004 and ended in July 2006. The empirical work included carrying out 124 face-to-face interviews and a year spent observing and participating in the administration.

The basic aim of the project is to analyse the internal and external changes taking place as a result of the incorporation of technological innovation in the citizen service processes by a public administration, the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Catalan government.

The research project is based on two main axes:

• a) to identify the elements (whether technological, organisational or cultural) that are key to this transformation process in terms of citizen service channels (mainly, the website, telephone and over-the-counter services), analysing in depth the conditions in which the accelerating or decelerating agents work and determining the scope and direction of the changes;
• b) to analyse the unique aspects of e-governance in the Catalan administration with regard to the international context. Thus, a comparative study was carried out with leading initiatives in regions with similar administrative scopes as Catalonia, such as Emilia Romagna, Scotland an< Quebec.

The general conclusions gained from the study show that a certain transformation is starting to take place, although it is slower than expected.

• The Catalan administration's web media, for example, have seen important work in indexing, taxonomy and ordering of the information, but there remain elements of the organisational structure and culture that act as obstacles to transversal information flows (a phenomenon seen in other public administrations in the international context).
  • On the one hand, the fact that strongly hierarchical decision-making and supervision structures still survive affects these information flows; flows which, in turn, are supported by technical systems that have, for the most part, been designed in the past in terms of these vertical control and decision-making structures or simply to automate processes.
  • And on the other, the continued existence of a legal and regulatory environment that also hinders the redesigning of the processes and procedures in a context increasingly dominated by digital communications and transactions. The effects of excessive organisational compartmentalisation and the high level of autonomy of the administrative units also continue to represent important obstacles.
• The role of the citizen as a customer of the administration or consumer of public services is also reinforced, rather than as a political subject involved in participative processes. The technology is used, then, to improve management rather than to expand democracy or improve political processes. Citizens become jointly responsible for their own services and the Administration looks to provide them with the tools and information needed for this new task where, additionally, relations with the State are increasingly individualised.