November 25, 2005
Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies
Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New models to serve and empower the poor, Seán Ó Siochrú and Bruce Girard, report for UNDP.
"Where communication facilities are available, the poor rapidly embrace them. Where schools offer courses in ICT or use ICT to make educational content more interesting, parents are often supportive since they see it as a source of upward mobility and recognise its potential to ensure more effective learning. Where ICT makes available critical information, financial services, and reduces the maze of bureaucracy, people benefit in terms of reduced time and resources that need to be expended....
..." Where ICT facilitates access to information about new economic opportunities and helps avail of them, small and medium sized enterprises and cooperatives demonstrate interest. Where ICT access is available, it helps to stimulate investment. But it is not just a question of facilitating economic and social development, community radio and related technologies are, for example, also proving useful in facilitating participation and strengthening the voice of communities."
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September 18, 2005
Community Internet Under Attack
Community Internet Under Attack
By Mitchell Szczepanczyk
September 2005, Z Magazine
Who might control the future of high-speed Internet? Will it be
municipalities and communities that can make the Internet into a
widespread and affordable public service like electricity or running
water or big cable and telecommunications companies, like SBC, Comcast, and Verizon, who would redline communities and inflate prices to maximize profit?
On the one hand, citizens across the United States can now set up their own affordable municipal Internet initiatives where entire communities can achieve high- speed Internet connectivity at relatively low cost, thanks to increasingly affordable technologies like under-the-ground copper wiring and wireless connections. On the other hand, in the wake of a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, major cable and telecommunications companies have been lobbying state legislatures to make such initiatives illegal, or legal only under highly constrained conditions.
These companies rally under the banner of “telecom reform” in order to
gain captured markets for themselves.
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April 02, 2005
CRACIN
CRACIN - the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking is a three-year partnership between community informatics researchers, community networking practitioners and government policy specialists. The project has been funded by SSHRC's Initiative for the New Economy (INE) program for $899,450 over for 3 years. The alliance will be studying community-based information and communications technology initiatives.
CRACIN brings together leading Community Informatics researchers from across Canada, and internationally to investigate the main Canadian government programs promoting the development and public accessibility of internet services. Under the Federal Government's 'Connecting Canadians' agenda, several hundred million dollars have been invested in funding thousands of non-profit and community based organizations to help Canadians communicate electronically with each other as well as to access informational services and resources that strengthen participation in contemporary economic and social life. We believe that this has resulted in significant benefits to Canadians and has positioned Canada on the leading edge in promoting community informatics as a key element of the 'new economy'.
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Community Informatics
As a new multidisciplinary field of academic study, community informatics is concerned with the study of the enabling uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in communities – how ICTs can help achieve a community’s social, economic, cultural, or political goals. Community informatics brings together the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders – community activists and groups, policymakers, users/citizens, artists, and a range of academics working across disciplines (communication studies, cultural studies, information studies, sociology, political science, urban studies and geography, and Canadian studies). Six areas that encompass a community informatics approach include: access facilities, service design, telecentre or community access centre design, design of the community system, online service delivery, and online support. Applications of community informatics include community Internet access, community information, online civic participation, online community service delivery, community economic development, education/training/learning networks, community and regional training, and telework.
A rich literature has developed in community informatics, which covers a broad range of issues, focusing on case studies in North America, Europe, Latin America, and developing countries. These issues, broadly speaking, include:
Access – how are access needs met in particular communities? Are community nets able to bridge the ‘digital divide’? (Access here defined as both access to the technical and the social infrastructure). Design is important here – are the concepts of user-centred design, universal design and participatory design utilized, taking into account various linguistic and literacy barriers?
Community economic development - how are community nets contributing to this?
Social cohesion – are community nets contributing to social inclusion? What has been the effect of community and civic participation?
Development – are telecentres and other public access facilities meeting the needs of those in developing countries?
Learning – how are community nets being used or contributing to digital literacy?
COMMUNITY I NFORMATICS – SELECTED RESOURCES
HISTORY/THEORY
Michael Gurstein, Michel Menou, Sergei Stafeev, eds. (2003).Community Networking and Community Informatics: Prospects, Approaches, Instruments. St. Petersburg, Russia. URL: http://www.communities.org.ru/ci-text/bic-text.html
William McIver, Jr. (2003). A Community Informatics for the Information Society, pp. 33-64 in Communicating in the Information Society. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
Michael Bieber, Richard Civille, Michael Gurstein and Nancy White. (2002). A White Paper Exploring Research Trends and Issues in the Emerging Field of Community Informatics. URL: http://www.communityinformatics.org/content/CI_whitepaper.pdf
Leigh Keeble and Brian D. Loader. (2001). Community informatics: themes and issues, pp. 1-10 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Michael Gurstein. (2000). Community Informatics: Enabling Community Uses of Information and Communications Technology, pp. 1-32 in Michael Gurstein, ed., Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communication Technologies. Idea Group Publishing.
Michael Gurstein. (1999). Flexible Networking, Information and Communication Technology and Local Economic Development. First Monday 4(2). URL: http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_2/gurstein/
METHODOLOGY
Christopher Ireland. (2003). The Changing Role of Research, pp. 22-29 in Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Brenda Laurel. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Randal Pinkett. (2003). Community Technology and Community Building: Early Results from the Creating Community Connections Project. The Information Society (19): 365-379.
Tim Plowman. (2003). Ethnography and Critical Practice, pp. 30-38 in Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Brenda Laurel. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Jo Tacchi, Don Slater and Greg Hearn. (2003). Ethnographic Action Research. New Delhi: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. URL: www.genderwsis.org/fileadmin/resources/UNESCOICTandpovertyreduction.pdf
Murali Venkatesh. (2003). The Community Network Lifecycle: A Framework for Research and Action. The Information Society (19): 339-347.
Dara O’Neil. (2002). Assessing community informatics: a review of methodological approaches for evaluationg community networks and community technology centers Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 12(1): 76-102.
Ricardo Ramírez, Helen Aitkin, Galin Kora & Don Richardson. (2002). Community engagement, performance measurement and sustainability: Experiences from Canadian community based networks. Paper presented at the GlobalCN Community Informatics Mini Conference, Montreal, October 2002. URL: http://www.globalcn.org/en/article.ntd?id=243&sort=1.21.10
Nicholas W. Jankowski, Martine Van Selm and Ed Hollander. (2001). On crafting a study of digital community networks: theoretical and methodological considerations, pp. 101-117 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. New York: Routledge.
SOCIAL COHESION / INCLUSION & EXCLUSION / ACCESS
Matthew David. (2003). The politics of communication: information technology, local knowledge and social exclusion. Telematics and Informatics (20): 235-253.
Michael Gursetein. (December 2003). Effective use: A community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. First Monday 8(12). URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html
Ronald E. Rice and James E. Katz. (2003). Comparing internet and mobile phone usage: digital divides of usage, adoption, and dropouts. Telecommunications Policy (27): 597-623.
Mark Warschauer. (2003). Social capital and access. Universal Access in the Information Society 2(4) 1-52.
EKOS Research Associates. (2002). Tracking the Dual Digital Divide. URL: http://www.ekos.com/media/files/dualdigitaldivide.pdf
Emmanuel Forestier, Jeremy Grace and Charles Kenny. (2002) Can information and communication technologies be pro-poor? Telecommunications Policy (26): 623-646.
Pippa Norris. (2002). Social Capital and Civic Society, pp. 188-212 in Democractic Phoenix: Political Activism Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Jenny Preece. (2002). Supporting Community and Building Social Capital. Communications of the ACM 14(4): 36-40.
Kenneth E. Pigg. (2001). Applications of Community Informatics for Building Community and Enhancing Civic Society. Information, Communication & Society 4(4): 507-527.
Clement, Andrew and Leslie Regan Shade. (2000). The Access Rainbow: Conceptualizing Universal Access to the Information/Communications Infrastructure, pp. 32-51 in Community Informatics: Enabling Community Uses of Information Technology, ed, Michael Gurstein. Idea Publishing Group.
Brian D. Loader and Leigh Keeble . (Summer 2000). Electronic Community Networks: Women’s Place, Women’s Space? The CPSR Newsletter 18(3). URL: http://www.cpsr.org/publications/newsletters/issues/2000/Summer2000/loader-keeble.html
VOICES/CULTURAL PARTICIPANTS/GENDER/RACE/CLASS
Karen E. Riggs. (2003). The Digital Divide’s Gray Fault Line: Aging Workers, Technology and Policy, pp. 227-240 in Granny@Work: Aging and New Technology on the Job in America.
Laura D. Stanley. (2003). Beyond Access: Psychological Barriers to Computer Literacy. The Information Society (19): 407-416.
June Lennie. (2002). Care and Connection in Online Groups Linking Rural and Urban Women in Australia: Some Contradictory Effects. Feminist Media Studies 2(3): 289-306.
Denise Meredyth, Liza Hopkins, Scott Ewing and Julian Thomas. (2002). Measuring Social Capital in a Networked Housing Estate. First Monday 7(10). http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/meredyth/index.html
John L. Sullivan, Eugene Borgida, Melinda S. Jackson, Eric Riedel, Alina Oxendine, and Amy Gangl. (2002). Social Capital and Community Electronic Networks: For-profit versus for-community approaches. American Behavioral Scientist 45(5): 868-886.
Eileen Green and Leigh Keeble. (2001). The technological story of a woman’s centre: a feminist model of user centered design, pp. 53-70 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Toby Miller. (2001). Cultural Citizenship. Television & New Media 2(3): 183-186.
Margaret Page and Anne Scott. (2001). Change Agency and Women’s Learning: New practices in community informatics. Information, Communication & Society (4) 4: 528-559.
Tamara Seabrook and Louise Watts. (2001). The techno-flaneur: tele-erotic representation of women’s life spaces, pp. 240-262 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Michael Gurstein. 2000. Rural development and food security: A "community informatics" based conceptual framework for FAO. URL: http://www.fao.org/sd/CDdirect/CDre0055c.htm
VIRTUAL, COMMUNITY & CORPORATE SPACES
Keith N. Hampton. (2004). Grieving for a Lost Network: Collective Action in a Wired Suburb. The Information Society (19) 417-428.
Kate Williams and Abdul Alkalimat. (Forthcoming June, 2004). A Census of Public Computing in Toledo Ohio, Shaping the Network Society: The New Role of Civil Society in Cyberspace, edited Doug Schuler and Peter Day. Cambridge: MIT Press.
John M. Carroll and Mary Beth Rosson. (2003). A Trajectory for Community Networks. The Information Society (19): 381-393.
Catherine Chassay and Peter Case. (2003). Talking shop—contact centres and dimensions of ‘social exclusion’ Telematics and Informatics (20): 275-296.
Michael Gurstein. (December 2003). Community Innovation and Community Informatics: Building National Innovation Capability from the Bottom Up
URL: http://www.comminit.com/ma2004/sld-9702.html
Darrene Hacker. (2003). Invisible Infrastructure and the City: The Role of Telecommunications in Economic Development. American Behavioral Scientist 46(8): 1-22.
B. Hull. (2003). ICT and social exclusion: the role of libraries Telematics and Informatics 20: 131-142.
Anne Sofie Laegran and James Stewart. (2003). Nerdy, trendy or healthy? Configuring the internet café. New Media & Society 5(3): 357-377.
Sonia Liff. (2003). Shaping e-access in the cybercafé: networks, boundaries and heterotopian innovation. New Media & Society 5(3): 313-334.
Pippa Norris. (2003). The Bridging and Bonding Role of Online Communities, pp. 3—13 in Society Online: The Internet in Context, ed. Philip Howard and Steve Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Johanna Uotinen. (2003). Involvement in (the information) society – the Joensuu Community Resource Centre Netcafé. New Media & Society 5(3): 335-356.
Nine Wakeford. (2003). The embedding of local culture in global communication: independent internet cafés in London. New Media & Society 5(3): 379-399.
Eugene Borgida, John L. Sullivan, Alina Oxendine, Melinda S.Jackson, Eric Riedel and Amy Gangl. (Spring 2002). Civic culture meets the digital divide: the role of community electronic networks. Journal of Social Issues 58 (I): 125(17).
Sonia Liff, Fred Steward and Peter Watts. (2002). New Public Places for Internet Access: Networks for Practice-Based Learning & Social Inclusion, pp. 78-98 in Virtual Society? Get real!: the social science of electronic technologies Steve Woolgar ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Eileen Green and Leigh Keeble. (2001). The technological story of a woman’s centre: a feminist model of user centered design, pp. 53-70 in Community informatics: Shapin g Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Andrea L. Kavanaugh and Scott J. Patterson. (2001). The Impact of Community Computer Networks on Social Capital and Community Involvement. American Behavioral Scientist 45(3): 496-509.
Barry Wellman. (2001). Physical place and cyberplace: the rise of networked individualism, pp. 17-42 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Doug Schuler. (2000). New Communities and New Community Networks, pp. 174-189 in Michael Gurstein, ed., Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communication Technologies. Idea Group Publishing.
POLICY & GOVERNANCE
Heather Hudson. (2004, in press). Universal Access: What Have We Learned from the E-rate? Telecommunications Policy.
Stephen Musgrave. (2004). The community portal challenge—is there a technology barrier for local authorities? Telematics and Informatics: 1-12.
Barrie Axford and Richard Huggins. (2003). Towards a political sociology of the Internet and local governance. Telematics and Informatics (20): 185-192.
Chris Nicol ed. (2003). ICT Policy: A Beginner’s Handbook. Association for Progressive Communications. URL: http://www.apc.org/english/capacity/policy/index.shtml
Fiorella De Cindio, Oliverio Gentile, Philip Grew and Daniela Redolfi. (2003). Community Networks: Rules of Behavior and Social Structure The Information Society (19): 395-406.
Kenneth J. Gergen. (2003). Action research and orders of democracy. Action Research 1(1): 39-56
Marc Raboy, Serge Proulx and Peter Dahlgren. (2003). The Dilemma of Social Demand: Shaping Media Policy in New Civic Contexts Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies 65(4-5): 323-329.
Seán Ó Siochrú. (November 2003). Global Governance of Information and Communication Technologies: Implications for Transnational Civil Society Networking. NY: Social Science Research Council. URL: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/governance_report/index.page
Rachel Gibson, Wainer Lusoli and Stephen Ward. (2002). UK Political Participation Online – the Public Response: A Survey of Citizens’ Political Activity Via the Internet. URL: http://www.ipop.org.uk
Leroy White. (2002). Connection matters: exploring the implications of social capital and social networks for social policy. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 19(3): 255-270.
Peter Day. (2001). The Networked Community: Policies for a Participative Information Society. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Brighton.
ACTIVISM/SOCIAL CHANGE
John Downey and Natalie Fenton. (2003). New media, counter publicity and the public sphere. New Media & Society 5(2): 185-202.
William Dutton et al. (2003). Broadband Internet: The Power to Reconfigure Access. Oxford Internet Institute. URL:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/resources/publications/OIIFD_Broadband_0803.pdf
Openflows Networks Ltd. (2003). Open Source Awareness Initiative for the Voluntary Sector of Canada http://openflows.org
Luis Fernando Baron Porras. (2003). IC (K) Ts, Civil Society and New Social Debates. URL: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications/ knowledge_report/memos/baronmemo.pdf
Mark Surnam and Katherine Reilly. (2003). Appropriating the Internet for Social Change: Towards the Strategic Use of Networked Technologies by Transnational Civil Society Organizations. URL: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/civ_soc_report/
Herbert Kubicek and Rose M. Wagner. (2002). Community Networks in Generational Perspective: The change of an electronic medium within three decades Information, Communication & Society 5(3): 291-319
Pippa Norris. (2002). New Social Movements, Protest Politics, and the Internet. Democractic Phoenix: Political Activism Worldwide. NY: Cambridge University Press: 188-212.
Dietram A. Scheufele and Matthew C. Nisbet. (2002). Being a Citizen Online: New Opportunities and Dead Ends Press/Politics 7(3): 55-75
David Wortley. (December 2002). Community Learning by Radio and the Internet. Society for International Development. (45) 4: 61-63
Margaret Page and Anne Scott. (2001). Change Agency and Women’s Learning: New practices in community informatics. Information, Communication & Society (4) 4: 528-559.
Doug Schuler. (2001). Cultivating society’s civic intelligence: patterns for a new ‘world brain’, pp. 284-304 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. NY: Routledge.
Organizations and Projects
Community Informatics Research and Applications Unit, University of Teeside
CIRN - Community Informatics Research Network
Community Informatics System Research Group, Central Queensland University
Community Information Resource Center (CIRC), Rural Policy Research Inst., University of Missouri
Platform for Community Networks – Mini-Conference on Community Informatics, Montreal, October 2002
Community Informatics Listserv
communityinformatics@vancouvercommunity.net
Hosted by Michael Gurstein of the Vancouver Community Network. This list is "open" and unmoderated. Starting points for discussion are as follows:
1. The policy, technical, and research issues of Community Informatics.
2. Thoughts about the relevance and importance of Community Informatics, especially the role of Community Informatics as an applied research discipline and practice.
3. Experiences and insights about Community Informatics in Developed and Developing countries.
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