Overview   Keynotes   Working Groups and Plenary   Outcomes   Background

Search Conference: Community and Information Technology: the Big Questions. 16 October, 2002.

"Non-profit organisations are governed by voluntary boards or committees of management and involve the community in their work in a range of other imaginative ways. They have always had some form of relationship with government whether as critic, collaborator in social change or crucible for innovation. A crucial additional factor today is their role as a key deliverer of services funded not predominantly by direct community contributions but by government." [Charitable Organisations in Australia, Productivity Commission, 1999]

Overview

This event, support by a Monash University Small Grant (2001-2) to the Centre for Community Networking Research, is being held on Wednesday 16 October 2002 from 9am - 5pm ( at the Council of Adult Education Business Centre, 4/253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne).

We have invited participants from community and non-profit agencies, all levels of government, research, and some business organisations to identify and scope the big questions about impacts, potentialities and shortcomings of information and communications technology (ICT) within communities. For example:

The day is intended as an opportunity for reflection and for thinking outside immediate day-to-day contexts. The day is being professionally facilitated by Richard Brown of Richard Brown and Associates in order to provide the opportunity for free discussion of issues and questions.

This is the first event of its kind in Victoria, and follows on from the recent Electronic Networking -Building Community Conference hosted by the Centre for Community Networking Research. One outcome of that conference was a widely expressed interest in progressing discussions around issues of trust, risk, relationships, boundaries, and sustainability for community technology undertakings.

Keynotes

In order to help with this process, we have invited 3 internationally recognized-keynote speakers to deliver short presentations during the morning session and participate in a dialogue with participants.

The keynotes are:

  1. Lyn Simpson, Centre for Service Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, who has been closely involved with projects & discussions about the impacts of technology on the community and non-profit sector in Queensland
  2. Randy Stoecker, Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Toledo, Ohio, a leading exponent of collaborative research and action in the development of ICT projects. Randy has visited Australia on a number of occasions.
  3. Brian Loader, Community Informatics Research & Applications Unit (CIRA) the University of Teesside, UK, who is interested in how social, political and economic factors are shaping the development and diffusion of ICT, and the implications for social, economic, governmental and cultural change. Brian is involved with a range of "virtual society" projects in the UK.

Their papers, intended to promote (and provoke) discussion and debate are linked below:

Working Groups and Plenary

In the afternoon session, participants will take part in small working groups to work on identified issues and we will then come together in a plenary session to develop a future agenda.

Outcomes

It is hoped that a future action and research agenda will be developed; that a new community of interest will be formed; and that a future mechanism for ongoign dialogue will be established; and that conference findings be shared as widely as possible.

Background

More background to the search conference is contained in the following: