THE WORLD WIDE WEB offers political candidates an effective way to reach groups of active voters, new research suggests. More than nine out of 10 Web users responding to a recent on-line questionnaire reported they were registered to vote, while 63 percent said they had participated in the most recent local, legislative or national elections.

Those proportions -- higher than for the population at large -- reflect the unique demographics of Web users.

"These numbers suggest that the Web can potentially play a significant role in politics," says Georgia Institute of Technology researcher Jim Pitkow. "The Web appears to be a viable way to distribute political information because large numbers of registered voters regularly use the Web."

More than 30 percent of the respondents described themselves as "moderate," while 35 percent said they were "liberal" or "very liberal," and 21 percent selected "conservative" or "very conservative."

Slightly more than 25 percent identified themselves as Democrats, while 21 percent called themselves Republicans.

Females were more likely than males to report being "liberal" or "very liberal." Web users older than 50 were nearly twice as likely (82 percent) than the youngest users (46 percent) to participate in elections.

Respondents did not confine their political activism to voting: 31 percent reported writing elected officials, 23 percent discussed political issues, and 22 percent signed petitions. More than 40 percent said they had become more politically involved since joining the online population.

The questions were part of GVU's Fifth World Wide Web User Survey. Conducted by Pitkow, Colleen Kehoe and other researchers at Georgia Tech's Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center, the survey also sampled the views of Web users on such issues as data privacy, fees charged for Web information, online shopping and the problems of Web surfing.

Some 11,700 Web users responded to the questions posted on the Web between April 10 and May 10, 1996. Though lacking the validity of a true scientifically selected random survey, the study nevertheless provides an interesting and widely respected "snapshot" of who's using the giant computer network.

Other results include:

More than 65 percent of the respondents said they would not be willing to pay for access to information on the Web. This may be bad news for Web sites planning to generate revenue from their users, and will likely mean tough competition among information providers trying to attract those willing to pay.

Web surfing is successfully competing with traditional media for leisure time. More than a third of the respondents (36 percent) said they surfed the Web rather than watch television.

More than half (55 percent) of the respondents accessed the Web primarily from home and (57 percent) are paying their own bills for doing so. Over 80 percent access the Web daily, mostly for browsing and entertainment.

For the first time, interest in Web shopping increased. Fifteen percent of respondents cited online shopping as an important Web activity, up from 11 percent in previous studies.

Few users understand all the information that can be recorded without their knowledge when they access a site. However, by a large majority, users believe they should have a right to control their demographic information, though most (79 percent) didn't object to providing data if they knew how it would be used.

Yet 26 percent of the respondents admitted falsifying information when registering at Web sites.

The cost of maintaining a Web account was not among the top issues cited, perhaps because the average household income of Web users is $59,000.

Further information is available from Jim Pitkow, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280. (E-mail: www-survey@cc.gatech.edu) (WWW: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-04-1996/)

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Last updated: 27 Nov. 1996