CCH gathered some great information on “professionals” using Web 2.0: Professionals and Web 2.0 (.pdf).
They interviewed 229 professionals within organizations across the Asia-Pacific region. The report addresses the use of wikis, blogs, social networks, and RSS in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The respondents consisted of professionals in tax & accounting, legal, HR and business. Most of them were employed by orgainzation with over 200 employees. the report indicates taht web 2.0 is becoming a way for you to start research and keep up with developments in your industry.
Web 2.0 is rapidly changing the landscape of professional information, with 43.7% of professionals using Web 2.0 tools at least once a week. While results show there is some reluctance for many organisations to adopt Web 2.0 before value can be established, a high percentage of ad-hoc use (at least 25.8%) is occurring due to the accessibility and functionality of the tools. This suggests Web 2.0 applications have gained a significant share of time spent online. We are increasingly using these tools to search, communicate and contribute to the web in both a personal and professional context.
Some highlights from the report:
- 33% of the respondents in the legal field said they used a wiki for professional purposes at least once a week.
- 35% of the respondents in the legal field use a blog for professional use at least once a week.
- 20% of the respondents in the legal field use a social network for professional use at least once a week.
Sure, you can look at the numbers and say that they have not reached early adoption. But, two years ago these numbers would probably be close to zero. I predict we will see these numbers crossing into the majority within two years.
Thanks to James Mullan of the Running Librarian for pointing out the report.
Doug, two points to clarify – this was an online survey (according to the PDF re: methodology) and not actually interviews). Also, the survey allowed people to “self classify” themselves. Still interesting data points but perhaps also imperfect in some ways.
Mike -
Thank you for those clarifications.
A third item to keep in mind is that the polling group was fairly small. The results could be a distorted view of the world.
The data was interesting to see that we are probably not in the early majority stage of adoption, but seem to be creeping closer.