In 1995, 2% of UK homes possessed a PC with a modem; 20% in the U.S. and 6% in Australia.
‘By the year 2000, Keynote expects that 2.6 million homes in the UK will have Internet access representing a household penetration of 12%’
The size and power of both the Internet and its associated software and hardware is growing at such a phenomenal rate that it is hard to make any predictions that do not become inadequate almost overnight. What is beyond doubt is the fact that the Internet is sure to permeate through our lives to a much greater extent than was predicted only a few years ago. Current estimates for the growth rate of the Internet by NUA Online (1999) as shown below show no decrease in the rate of growth expected up to 2005.
fig.1 Online Internet Users Worldwide
The Internet’s impact on industries, consumers and society in general will ultimately be substantial and far reaching (Thomas, 1998). Research carried out by Find/SVP Inc. Emerging Technologies Research Group in 1997 in U.S.A found that one in ten households with access to the Internet has purchased online rising to nearly 40% among households that bank online.
fig 2 Shopping/Banking Profile
The hypothesis which this thesis seeks to evaluate may be paraphrased as;
It is possible to deliver a garden design service on the Internet using the existing range of computer equipment and software currently available to the domestic market.
Oppenheim(1992)indicates that where knowledge and understanding of a new product (or service) is incomplete, the presence of confounded variables can produce serious misinterpretations. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some characteristics of a ‘Traditional’ and an ‘Internet’ service. The table below is a summary of a number of informal brainstorming sessions with Garden Designers and students of garden design.
Table 1. Characteristics of a Traditional and an Internet Garden Design Service
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Traditional Service |
Internet Service |
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It is known that a group of clients exists for the ‘Traditional’ Garden Design Service but no existing client group for an ‘Internet’ Garden Design Service could be identified. Exploratory pilot work as described by Oppenheim(1992) was carried out in the form of unstructured interviews with a number of ‘Internet Users’ in order to form a conceptualisation of the research problem.
1.1 Principle Aims and Objectives
The principle aims of this thesis are;
The principle objectives of the thesis are;
In the following two chapters, a description of the Internet is followed by a brief evaluation of the currently available hardware and software.
The methodology for researching and testing the hypothesis has two distinct stages. The first stage is a survey conducted on the Internet using a model website of an Internet Garden Design Service. The second stage of the research strategy is to set up a sample population and test a set of procedures for providing an Internet Garden Design Service.