Global IP activity probes 2003 to 2013

Full description

The data represents a copy of the Internet Census data collected by the Los Angeles Network Data Exchange and Repository at the University of Southern California from 2003 to 2013. An Internet Census is an activity probe of every IP address that can be used for Computer Science research, such as the stability of the Internet, and in the Social Sciences for socio-econimic impact analysis.

Significance statement

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides Internet Activity data under the catalog number “8153.0”. These statistics are constructed from the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and delivers an estimate about how many users have access to a specific Internet technology like ADSL. While this survey adequate for general observations, it is too low in granularity to assess the impact of Internet access on the Australian society and economic growth. The aim of this project is to provide significantly enhanced granularity on Internet usage, in both the temporal- and spatial- dimensions. Namely, the comparison (ABS) dataset provides semi-annual data at state level only (2 observations per year over 7 units of analysis) whereas the dataset we aim to provide in this study will provide quarterly data on LGAs (4 observations per year over 564 units of analysis). 1.4 x 101 versus 2.2 x103, i.e., two orders of magnitude improvement in granularity. This is achieved by combining different waves of Internet census, which allows a higher frequency and geo-spatial data. This lowers the entrance barriers for other researchers to use the outcome of this data set as input factor. Access to such data would be a stepping stone for further intense research in the area, facilitating relevant recommendations that are worth applying in the policy-making arena. Thus in the long run, it is expected that this project would influence the level of investment decisions that are made regarding technology use in Australia. From another perspective, since the project aims at collecting data on internet usage, the data would reflect the impact of internet usage on specific areas of the economy and would serve as a major knowledge-based asset for firms while making investment.