Research

eBay research receives grant

Researchers at the University's Institute for Socio-Technical Research, Chimera, have been awarded £120,000 to explore social aspects of eBay, the phenomenally successful Internet auction site.

Dr Rebecca Ellis and Anna Haywood received the grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and will carry out the two year project from Chimera's base at Adastral Park, Ipswich. Competition for gaining large grants in this round was intense, with only 24 per cent of applications winning funding.

The project, entitled 'Virtually second-hand: Internet auction sites as spaces of knowledge performance,' is due to start in February and will use an innovative mix of qualitative methods both online and offline. eBay has revolutionised the way some of us shop for and sell second-hand, antique and collectible items. However, such sites also provide potential new ways to display knowledges and 'do' identities, particularly in relation to artefacts and site-specific 'communities.' These include choice of user names, the creation of 'about me' pages, buying and selling practices and the construction of item pages. The research aims to explore the relationship between participation in eBay and the expression of social identities and knowledges. However, it also seeks to understand how eBay has provided new ways to buy, sell and browse for collectibles; and how and why eBay is changing existing collecting behaviours for an offline collecting community - the vintage radio scene.

Dr Ellis explained: 'Anna and I became interested in conducting research on this new phenomenon after using it frequently ourselves. Our own experiences buying and selling via the site helped us to formulate our research ideas.'

In line with Chimera's philosophy, the research has potential impacts not only for academia but also UK industries and competitiveness. Indeed, the project has a close tie-up with the Royal Mail Group who will gain an insight into the postal experiences of eBay users. The Royal Mail are also allowing the use of their Innovation Lab at Rugby for steering group meetings and a large, end of project conference.Paste text here.

 

E-living project continues to surprise

A European Commission funded project being carried out in part by researchers at the University's Institute for Socio-Technical Innovation and Research continues to reveal interesting insights into the way we use the internet.

The e-Living study is being carried out by Chimera in collaboration with eight other partners across Europe. It uses a two wave longitudinal household panel survey in six European countries to investigate the relationship between internet technologies and usage, and changing individual and household behaviour.

Early results from the 2003 analysis were presented recently at a workshop in Helsinki. The researchers revealed that, contrary to current arguments put forward by the music industry, those people who download music free of charge are much more likely to buy music on-line than those who had not downloaded free music. This is the first empirical evidence so far published for or against the music industry arguments.

Those who attended the workshop also heard how increasingly sophisticated internet technology has affected home-based working. In fact, only 2 per cent of those who had worked at a workplace at the start of the study, in 2001, now worked mainly at home. This was 4.7 per cent for those who had worked mainly whilst travelling. Therefore, somewhat surprisingly, there has been no great rush towards working from home as might have been expected.

The study has also showed that the rate of internet uptake has continued to slow, and even stall, in several countries, although in Italy and Israel uptake has increased in pace after a dip. Other intriguing discoveries include the fact that Italians have more new computers than any of the other nationalities involved.

For full details about the preliminary results for 2003 see www.eurescom.de/e-living

Also in the printed January edition of Wyvern:

• Entrepreneurs win business award
• What is your idea worth?