Impacts of Computer-Mediated Communication on Travel and Communication Patterns: The Davis Community Network Study

This report examines the interactions among different forms of communication, where travel is also considered a form of communication. Data for this study comes from 148 respondents to the "Activity Diary" survey instrument of the Davis Community Network (DCN) project, which obtained information on 636 uses of DCN. Generation, elimination and modification were considered to be the three major potential results of the present DCN communication and the five major types of communication considered were: in-person, physical object, electronic, in-person with travel, and physical object with travel. New activities were generated due to the use of DCN, a Computer-mediated Communication (CmC) system. Cluster analysis performed on the data to identify patterns of outcomes of the current communication yielded 20 clusters, of which the largest comprised neutral outcomes (no impact on future communication) and the second largest involved generation of electronic communication. A cluster analysis on the media alternatives considered by the respondents yielded 17 clusters of which the largest one was characterized by the "no alternative to DCN" response. Among media characteristics, economy, ease of use, speed and non-disruptiveness were found to be the most significant factors influencing the media choice of individuals. DCN was considered to be faster and cheaper than other forms of communication. Work-related and social/entertainment were the two purposes most frequently offered for the current DCN activity. Impacts of individual characteristics such as age, gender, income level and computer experience on DCN activities were also studied. Recommendations for future research are provided. Keywords: Communication Networks, Communications, Computer Networks, Telecommunication, Travel Behavior.