At the Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities
for An Information Society Colloquium
http://www.ccnr.net/prato2003/
held in September 2003 at the Monash University Centre in Prato, Italy
a group of participants from some 7 countries and representing a variety of
universities and research networks agreed to proceed to the creation of
a formal Community Informatics Research Network (.Org) (CIRN).
There was an agreement by the CIRN Interim Committee of the Whole that
the organization would be open to participation and membership by
individuals, institutions, for profit and not for profit enterprises and networks,
with an active interest and involvement in Community Informatics
Research and particularly those from Developing Countries.
The approach agreed to was also that this organisation would seek to
build a network of the related organizations that for subject, language
or other reasons feel more comfortable operating on their own. In other
words it would be pro-actively facilitating the formation of a structured
open network among CI research groups.
An invitation was extended by Dr. Peter Day and Brighton University
(UK) to host CIRN's first research conference in the spring of
2004. The Founding conference of CIRN it was agreed, would be hosted by
Monash University at the Prato Centre (Italy) in late September 2004.
Those with an interest in either affiliating with the Network or learning more
about it are invited as the first reasonable step to subscribe to the CI
Research list or to the more general Community Informatics interest list.
To subscribe send a message
To: sympa@vancouvercommunity.net
Message:
Subscribe CIResearchers
And/or Communityinformatics
Regional focal point of the CIRN in the CIS region is the Centre
of Community Networking and Information Policy Studies (CCNS)
You also are invited to subscribe to the e-list of the newly created CI
Research Network of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIRN-CIS) formed in conjunction with the BIC2003 International
conference. http://communities.org.ru/conference/
To subscribe send a message
To: sympa@vancouvercommunity.net
Message:
Subscribe CIRN-CIS
WHAT IS COMMUNITY INFORMATICS ?
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) present significant
oportunities and even advantages to local communities.
Community Informatics (CI) is the application of ICTs to enable community
processes and the achievement of community objectives including
overcoming "digital divides" both within and among communities.
But CI also goes beyond discussions of the "Digital Divide". It goes on to
examine how and under what conditions, ICT access can be made usable
and useful to the range of excluded populations and communities and
particularly to support local economic development, social justice and political
empowerment using the Internet.
CI considers the perspectives of diverse stakeholders - community activists,
nonprofit groups, policymakers, users/citizens, and a range of academics
working across disciplines. Applications of CI include community Internet
access, community information, online civic participation and community
service delivery, community economic development, training and learning
networks, and telework. Emergent CI issues include: access, community
economic development, social cohesion, and learning. CI is of particular
interest in this context in that it is a point of integration for a very diverse
range of both academics (including those from Information Studies,
Management, Computer Science, Social Work, Planning, Development
Studies among others), a globally dispersed network of practitioners including
from Latin America, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States,
and national and multi-lateral policy makers.
CI General Resources (Short List)
Internet
http://www.ciresearch.net - CIRN's "test" website
http://www.communityinformatics.org - NSF-funded CI project
http://ci-text.researcher.at - Open archive CI Text
Books
Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and
Communications Technologies, ed. by M. Gurstein, Idea Group 2000.
Community Informatics. Shaping computer-mediated relations", ed. by
Keeble L. and Loader B., Routledge, UK, 2001
Community Networking and Community Informatics: Prospects, Approaches,
Instruments, (Part 1: Global Experience), ed. by M. Gurstein, M. Menou,
S. Stafeev. CCNS, St. Petersburg, 2003. (also available in Russian)
Read more about CIRN
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