Study: Web 2.0 examined in Switzerland
There is interest in Web 2.0, but its use remains limited. This is the finding of a study conducted by Bernet PR and the MAZ—the Swiss School of Journalism. For the first time, the study shows the extent to which companies, government agencies, and NGOs in German-speaking Switzerland use communication tools that can be categorized under the term “Web 2.0.”.
There is interest in Web 2.0, but it is being used cautiously. This is the result of a study conducted by Bernet PR and MAZ - the Swiss School of Journalism. For the first time, it shows the extent to which German-speaking Swiss companies, administrations and NGOs use communication tools that can be subsumed under the keyword Web 2.0. Reading weblogs has clearly established itself: Two thirds of respondents do this as part of their business activities. Specialist blogs, journalistic blogs and consumer blogs are clearly in the foreground. Three quarters never write comments and only 12.2 percent run a blog themselves. Only 7.9 percent provide bloggers with media releases and only 3.4 percent invite them to media conferences.
More than half of the Swiss-German organizations surveyed offer online subscriptions for their current content. 45.1 percent rely on e-mail subscriptions, 13.4 percent on the new RSS application. Public administrations are the pioneers here: a remarkable 42 percent of RSS mentions fall into this area.
A quarter of Swiss-German organizations allow web comments and a quarter plan to do so. The proportion of those that invite visitors to upload content to their own website is low: 6.9% allow the uploading of texts, images or videos. By contrast, 45.7% already offer video podcasts and 37.8% audio podcasts.
Almost half of Swiss-German companies, administrations and NGOs follow web content very closely. Of these, two thirds search daily. 60.1 percent search internally using search engines, RSS subscriptions or special software.
Very few companies, administrations and NGOs post their own images, videos or bookmarks on public platforms such as YouTube or Flickr. Just under ten percent do this with videos, 7.3 percent with photos and 4.9 percent with bookmarks. This means that this Web 2.0 dialog form appears to be less suitable for the communicative goals of the respondents. 91.5 percent state that they are neither present in virtual worlds such as Second Life, nor do they plan to be in the future.
Collaboratively managed knowledge pages have also gained acceptance in everyday business life: 12.5% of those surveyed use wikis, 10.6% for internal communication. And a further 12.5 percent are planning to introduce one in the next two years.
The results are based on an online survey of the largest Swiss companies, administrations and NGOs with a representative sample of 104 respondents.
More than half of the Swiss-German organizations surveyed offer online subscriptions for their current content. 45.1 percent rely on e-mail subscriptions, 13.4 percent on the new RSS application. Public administrations are the pioneers here: a remarkable 42 percent of RSS mentions fall into this area.
A quarter of Swiss-German organizations allow web comments and a quarter plan to do so. The proportion of those that invite visitors to upload content to their own website is low: 6.9% allow the uploading of texts, images or videos. By contrast, 45.7% already offer video podcasts and 37.8% audio podcasts.
Almost half of Swiss-German companies, administrations and NGOs follow web content very closely. Of these, two thirds search daily. 60.1 percent search internally using search engines, RSS subscriptions or special software.
Very few companies, administrations and NGOs post their own images, videos or bookmarks on public platforms such as YouTube or Flickr. Just under ten percent do this with videos, 7.3 percent with photos and 4.9 percent with bookmarks. This means that this Web 2.0 dialog form appears to be less suitable for the communicative goals of the respondents. 91.5 percent state that they are neither present in virtual worlds such as Second Life, nor do they plan to be in the future.
Collaboratively managed knowledge pages have also gained acceptance in everyday business life: 12.5% of those surveyed use wikis, 10.6% for internal communication. And a further 12.5 percent are planning to introduce one in the next two years.
The results are based on an online survey of the largest Swiss companies, administrations and NGOs with a representative sample of 104 respondents.
