The criteria used for processing the PERINE questionnaire data is chi-square statistics on contingency tables, where categories represent the answers given by the interviewed people. The level of significance – which allows us to determine whether or not a finding is the result of a genuine difference between two (or more) items, or whether it is just due to chance – is set at p=0.05, the most employed within social sciences. Anyway, higher cut-off values than 0.05 were taken into account too since the test power was often found to be lower than the one expected (0.8). Thus, great caution must be exercised in interpreting negative findings.

Sex - Current Use
No significant associations were found combining sex with the current use of the Internet. Thus, it seems that the frequency of the use of the Internet is not associated with sex.

Sex - Competence

• 3.2/4 men tend to define themselves as capable users or even experts, while women tend to define themselves as simple users (p<0.001). Thus, gender differences are likely to determine different perception of self-competence.

Sex - Promotion Factors for Future Needs
No significant associations were found combining sex and promotion factors - such as a better organisation of the information, the availability of more specific information and more time in the day (11.1, 11.2 and 11.6 ). However, significant associations were found as for or following factors:

• 3.2/11.3: men seem to be more sceptical about personal help in the use of the Internet being a promoting factor in the future (p=0.048):
• 3.2 /11.4: men seem to be less attracted by the possibility of an information gateway dedicated to the study of education (p=0.01):
• 3.2/11.5: women seem to think that courses/training about the use of the Internet could represent a promoting factor (p<0.001).

Sex - Professional Role
No significant associations were found combining sex and professional roles, such as the management of research and the practical conduct of research (point 1.1 and 1.2). Significant associations were found for the following points:

• 3.2/1.3 (teaching at university): as for this sample, men are more involved in this role than women are (p=0.004).
• 3.2/1.4 (administration): men are more likely to be in charge for administrative tasks than women (the difference is almost significant, p=0.057).
• 3.2/1.6 (editing/publishing): women are less involved in editing and publishing tasks than men are (p=0.006).

Age - Competence
No significant associations were found combining age with the perceived competence in the use of the Internet. Thus, it seems that the competence level in the use of the Internet is not associated with age.

Age - Frequency of Use
No significant associations were found combining age with the frequency of use of the Internet. Thus, it seems that the frequency of use of the Internet is not associated with age.

Place of Work - Competence
No significant associations were found combining the interviewers’ competence with the relative place of work. Thus, it seems that the competence in the use of the Internet is not associated with the interviewers’ place of work.

Place of Work - Frequncy of Use
No significant associations were found combining the frequency of use of the Internet and the place of work. Thus, it seems that the frequency in the use of the Internet is not associated with the interviewers’ place of work.

Place of Work - Trasformation of the Work Nature
No significant associations were found combining the place of work with a possible transformation in the work nature by the Internet. Thus, it seems that the perception of how the Internet might transform the nature of the work does not depend on the place of work.

Place of Work - Current Use of the Internet:
The statistical processing as for “place of work” takes only the categories “higher education”, “school” and “research organisation” into account (6.1, 6.3, 6.4) since the other two categories register a too low number of occurrences. The chi-square was estimated on 3x3 frequency tables.

• 6/9.2 (Finding material/sources for teaching): people working in schools use the Internet to find material/sources for teaching less than higher education professionals or researchers (findings are almost-significant, p=0.063).
• 6/9.4 (Information on current events and policies): people working in the higher education sector are the most sceptical as for the use of the Internet to find information on current events and policies than the other two categories are (p= 0.028).
• 6/9.8 (Arranging for journeys): the people employed in the higher education sector use the Internet to arrange journeys less than the other work categories (almost significant, p=0.069).
• 6/9.12 (getting information about researchers/research institutes): it seems that higher education professionals are more likely to use the Internet successfully to get information about researchers/research institutes than the other two categories do (p= 0.007).

Workplace - Starting Points:

• 6/12.2 (subject gateways like Edulink, etc.): people working in schools are more likely to start from subjects gateways than the other two categories do (p= 0.049).
• 6/12.4 (links provided by others): researchers rely on links provided by others less than the other two categories do (p= 0.039).

Workplace - Anticipated Web Use in the Future
The number of answers “no use at all” to questions no. 10.1-10.17 is significantly higher as for higher education professionals than as for the other two categories (p=0.017).

• 6/10.4 (information on current events and policies): in future, higher education professionals are likely to use the Internet to get information on current events and policies less than the other two categories do (p= 0.02).
• 6/10.12 (information about researchers/research institutions): school professionals are the least interested in using the Internet to get information about researchers/research institutions (p= 0,051).
• 6/10.15 (information about courses and study offers): higher education professionals are the least interested in using the Internet to get information about courses and study offers (p= 0.079, almost significant).

Place of Work - Particular Services

• 6/13.2 (database BIBL (INDIRE): higher education professionals are more likely to use the BIBL database service than the other two categories do (p= 0.025).
  No significant associations were found combining the place of work with the use of the particular services “Risorse Internet per al didattica”, “RIVI” and “GOLD”. Thus, it seems that people use the above services, independently from their place of work.

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