Many Voices, Many Places - CIRN Colloquium (2003)

Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society: A Colloquium
Research Results, Lessons Learned, Policy Recommendations

This is an archive site for the conference. For papers, please use the following link

Prato , Italy 15-16 September, 2003

Conference Outcomes

The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, Australia and and the Community Informatics Research Group at New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA held the highly succesful colloqiuim, Many Voices Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society on 15-16 September, at the Monash Centre, Prato (Florence), Italy.

* The Colloquim lead to the establishment of the Community Informatics Research Network, and international association for advancing research and practitioner interests in community informatics and community networking. A website will be in operation shortly, but in the interim, below is the statement of purposes.
* It was also agreed that a further events will include a research conference in Brighton in Spring 2003, with a Foundation Conference atPrato in September 2004. Information will be forthcoming.
* A Communique for the World Summit on the Information Society, Prato, September 2004 was also developed. (RTF file)

Community Informatics Research Network, Statement of Purposes

* To promote and represent community informatics research internationally
* To act as a research forum and network for researchers and practitioners in the community informatics and community networking fields
* To develop active links and networks with organizations that share similar objectives anywhere in the world, in order to facilitate interaction in support of community informatics, community networking and related community-based information and communications technologies research and development activities
* To support research events, colloquia, conferences, and other events, and to support online discussion of community informatics issues
* To develop a range of published materials of interest to researchers and practitioners in the discipline of community informatics
* To engage in a fundraising strategy for agreed areas

Conference Program

Speakers on 15-16 September included (in aphabetical order):

* Barbara Craig, Victoria University, New Zealand: Social consequences of connecting low-income communities: the New Zealand experience (peer reviewed paper)
* Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK. CNA - Community Network Analysis and ICT: Bridging and Building Community Ties (peer reviewed paper)
* Tom Denison, Graeme Johanson, Don Schauder, Larry Stillman, Monash University: Structuration Theory, Information and Communication Technologies and Social Capital (peer reviewed paper)
* Mike Gurstein, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Effective Use: Community Informatics Meets the Digital Divide (peer reviewed paper)
* Beris Gywnne, Foundation for Development Cooperation, Australia: Information Technology: A world of difference
* Susan Kretchmer Johns Hopkins University, Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide & Rod Carveth Rochester Institute of Technology Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide , Electronically Enabling the Disabled Community for an Information Society: Lessons Learned and Policy Recommendations?
* Michel Menou, City University London, UK. Digital inclusion: a magic potion for the development of communities?
* Scott Robinson, Universidad Metropolitana, Mexico, Reflections on Digital Innovations and the Rural Innovation Institute (peer reviewed paper)
* Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University Australia: Psychographic Profiles and Discontinuous Adoption of Internet Technologies in Regional Australia (peer reviewed paper)
* Steve Thompson, Teeside University, UK: Fear Of Crime - The Movie Using New Technology To Help Community Groups Have a Voice

Colloquium Location

Monash University Prato Centre

Palazzo Vaj Via Pugliesi 26 59100 Prato Italy

Enquiries: 39 0574 43691. See the See the map for more information

Background

Mid-September 2003 sees a conjunction of several conferences where the role and impact of electronically-enabled communities will be discussed, including: Next 5 MINUTES 4, Amsterdam, 12-14 September Information, Communication, Society: A Research Symposium, Oxford 17th-20th September; and Communities and Technologies (C&T 2003), Amsterdam, 19 - 21 September.

Many Voices, Many Places: Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society is meant as a complement to provide an opportunity for practitioners, researchers and policy makers from research centers, universities, cultural institutions, and agencies involved in governance to discuss and reflect on the role and opportunities for emergent communities as constrained by physical, distance, resource, political, and gender barriers for effective participation in an Information Society.

We aim to identify the structures and processes which enable collective memory, minority knowledge creation, and oral culture inclusive of all parts of societies and how these may be empowered to enhance effective social participation. The intersection of the discipline of community informatics with these dimensions of societal knowledge production (and the consequential empowerment and development of social capital) will also be explored.

We are looking to provide a forum where those involved can discuss/summarize/theorize/and draw conclusions or lessons learned from some ten years of practical work and research experience in applying Information and Communications Technologies to enabling (and empowering) emergent communities (virtual and physical) framed as a contribution to the World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in Geneva in December of 2003.

Some Possible Topic Areas for Discussion

* What are the "many voices" in the Information Society
* What are their barriers to participation and what opportunities do they
* present to themselves and to others as communities
* How are these many voices "sustainable"
* Many voices as communities of interest (and of place)
* Sustaining these communities
* Strategies for Innovation: What Do We Know and How Can it Be Promoted
* ICTs and Local Economic Development at the margins: What Do We Know and
* Where Do We Go From Here
* Do ICTs contribute to Poverty Alleviation and if so, how can this be
* replicated?
* Telecentres-best practices; cost-benefit assessment; are they a solution
* for "universal access"
* What contribution can ICTs make to building Civil Society?
* Communities, ICTs and Emergent Democracy
* What is the (appropriate) role of the private sector

Colloquium Proceedings

Peer reviewed papers were published on this website 15 October 2003. Follow this link.

Colloquium committee

* Michael Gurstein, (Visiting) Professor, School of Management New Jersey Institute of Technology, Convenor
* Prof Don Schauder, School of Information Management and Systems, Monash University
* Dr Graham Johanson, School of Information Management and Systems/Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University
* Larry Stillman, School of Information Management and Systems/Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University

Advisory Committee

* Michel Minou, Department of Information Science, City University of London
* Scott Robinson, Universidad Metropolitana, Mexico
* Wal Taylor, Central Queensland University

What is Community Informatics?

Community Informatics lies at two cross-roads: bringing together people concerned with electronically enabling communities: local, virtual and communities of practice, including community community networks; and structuring collaborations between researchers and practitioners, including industry, in these three domains. ( Community Informatics promotes the cross-fertilization of ideas and experience found at this cross-roads, bringing together researchers and practitioners from many varied disciplines.
Stay Informed about Community Informatics!

If you are interested in Community Informatics, and would like to be notified of future events and on-going research, please join the community informatics research list (ciresearch) which is kindly hosted by Vancouver Community Network
Colloquium Sponsors

* The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, Australia
* New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
* National Science Foundation