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Welcome to the project page for the "Internet Cafe Use by the Community in Prato" project, part of the "Chinese in Prato" project that is funded by Monash University Australia supported by the Monash University Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International).

The main aim of this project is to compare and contrast the uses of Internet cafes in Prato by the local community with those in Australia. This will involve an exploration of:

Nguyen Thanh Tuyen
PhD Candidate
Faculty of Information Technology
Mail: tuyennt1964 AT y ahoo.com

Research Topic: a model for formulation of policies on ICTs for a sustainable economic development in Vietnam

Achievements to date:
* Knowledge Economy for Sustainable Development? A Thachsanh Rice Bowl’, submitted to International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.

Natalie is currently undertaking her PhD research addressing user centred design methodologies and the issue of technological adaptation within user communities. Her industry experience evolves around these areas, as well as pragmatic evaluations of digital interfaces and human computer interaction methodologies.

Contact email: natalie.pang AT infotech.monash.edu.au. My website is still under construction at the moment.

[inline:1=cirn] 3rd Prato International Community Informatics Conference; CIRN 2006. 9- 11 October 2006. Contact: prato2006ATfastmail.fm.

Nearly all abstracts and papers are now online.

The conference archive is now online.

Conference Purpose

Professor Randy Stoecker, University of Wisconsin. Honorary Senior Research Fellow. Throughout his career at the University of Toledo he have been involved in working with neighborhood organizations--helping them do strategic planning, conduct needs assessments, and evaluate their impact, including the impact of ICTs on communities. Prof. Stoecker has collaborated with CCNR on a number of its projects and has visited Australia on numerous occasions.

CCNR's staff span a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, bringing to its activities many skills. In addition, our engagement with the community-based organisations, the information profession, and government, provides us with the linkages and credibility into each of these sectors.

Emeritus Professor Don Schauder

serves as the Centre's chair. He is Professor of Information Management in Monash University's School of Information Management and Systems.

Don has been library director at the South African Library for the Blind, the University of Natal; Prahran College of Advanced Education; Chisholm Institute of Technology; and RMIT University. He founded INFORMIT Electronic Publishing at RMIT, and was a co-founder of VICNET--Victoria's Network at the State Library of Victoria.

He has served on information policy committees under successive State Governments, including the Information Society Committee of the Premier's Taskforce on Multimedia. He has been a member of the Library Board of Victoria, Chair of its Library Network Committee. His teaching and research are focused on the development of information communities, products and services, and knowledge management environments that meet the needs of individuals, organisations and society.

Assoc. ProfessorGraeme Johanson

Graeme is Director of the Centre and a Senior Research Fellow in Information and Telecommunications Needs Research (ITNR).

His recent research projects have included evaluating a national learning repository, researching the links between theory and practice in community informatics in Australia, analysing the community's use of the Internet in Victorian public libraries, developing a national academic library network, studying knowledge transfer in an international sporting organisation, monitoring a national survey of the use of information and communications technologies in third sector organisations, co-ordinating the development of a Civil Society Statement to supplement materials developed by the Australian Government for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), consulting on a 3-year project to capture Aboriginal culture for perpetuity electronically, managing a project to identify and model variables invovled in establishing community Internet connections in rural regions, and developing measures for describing the sustainability of community infrastructures.
Other projects relate to Australian publishing, electronic publishing, evaluating the usefulness of library portals and virtual libraries by educational communities, sustainable knowledge management, mapping information-seeking behaviours, and social issues related to knowledge transfer.

Dr Larry Stillman

Senior Research Fellow, CCNR. Larry's PhD was about technology in community-based non-profit organisations, integrating structuration theory and theories of knowledge and technology.

He has been closely involved with all of CCNR's projects, and has a particular interest in evaluative methodologies, including program logic methodologies applied to action research for community informatics and community technology projects.

He has a background of research and development in community networking and has worked in non-profit organisations, as well as VICNET, with particular involvement in online services for people with disabilities and non-English speakers, including the Open Road website. He had played a leading role in community networking conferences and events in Australia, as well as building contacts with colleagues internationally, including the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN).

Follow this link for details of Larry's PhD and research and community development work, including papers (some overly speculative) and presentations.

Tom Denison

has over 20 years involvement in the computing and information industries. Tom is currently undertaking PhD research into the take-up and use of Information and Communications Technology by community sector organisations, which his major study examines from the perspective of diffusion of innovation and social network theory. He is a part-time staff member of in the Centre for Community Networking Research and principal consultant for White Room Electronic Publishing Pty. Ltd.

With over 20 years involvement in the computing and information industries, Tom specialises in community informatics, the development of online services including the design and provision of online library services, and the development of commercial publishing via the Internet and other electronic media. He has worked on a number of electronic publishing projects, including a period as Head of INFORMIT Electronic Publishing, several library automation projects in Vietnam and Australia, and various consultancies related to the development of library and information services. He has lectured at both Monash University and RMIT.

Tom's research interests include: community informatics; current developments in information services and electronic publishing; useful content on networks; the significance of different forms of content; the chaos and diversity of the Internet. A complete is available at CV is available.

Dr Kirsty Williamson

Kirsty is the Director of Information Needs and Telecommunications Research and is a Senior Research Fellow by Monash and Charles Sturt Universities. Her interests focus on a wide range of users of information and telecommunications, although an important specific interest has been the problems faced by disadvantaged people in adapting to technological change. Follow the link for more about ITNR and publications.

Professor Randy Stoecker

University of Wisconsin. Honorary Senior Research Fellow. Throughout his career at the University of Toledo he have been involved in working with neighborhood organizations--helping them do strategic planning, conduct needs assessments, and evaluate their impact, including the impact of ICTs on communities. Prof. Stoecker has collaborated with CCNR on a number of its projects and has visited Australia on numerous occasions. Randy has a model for this kind of work, where academics partner with community-based social change efforts, called community-based research or CBR. He is the author of numerous articles and a number of recent publications including Research Methods for Community Change A Project-Based Approach (Sage) and Community-Based Research and Higher Education (Jossey-Bass). Also see his website

Dr Stephen Burgess

is postgraduate research coordinator in the school of Information Systems at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He has a bachelor's degree in Accounting and a Graduate Diploma in Commercial Data Processing, both from Victoria University; an M.Bus (IT) from RMIT, Australia and a PhD at Monash University, Australia in the area of small business to consumer interactions on the Internet. His research interests include the use of IT in small businesses and community based organisations, the strategic use of IT, B2C electronic commerce and Management of IT education. He has edited/ co-edited two books in the area of small business and information technology. Stephen is coordinator of the Special Research Cluster on Small Business and Information Technology.

Stephen's link with CCNR is through a joint project, "Networked Growth", with Victoria University. The main aim of the project is to identify and promote capacity building at the points of intersection of the interests of two universities, along with proximate micro-businesses, and community organizations. The environs of Monash and Victoria University campuses have been chosen as locations to study alliances: Berwick (local government area: Casey) and Wyndham.

This research project carried out a multi-dimensional evaluation of an inter-related group of state-government supported community networking projects in a regional area. The community networking projects developed locally relevant "Points of Presence" and other ICT infrastructure. Our research developed and implemented a range of appropriate evaluation methodologies, data capture processes, and information management structures for the action research cases, and reported on the progress of individual cases.

Professor Don Schauder serves as the Centre's chair. He is Professor of Information Management in Monash University's School of Information Management and Systems.

Don has been library director at the South African Library for the Blind, the University of Natal; Prahran College of Advanced Education; Chisholm Institute of Technology; and RMIT University. He founded INFORMIT Electronic Publishing at RMIT, and was a co-founder of VICNET--Victoria's Network at the State Library of Victoria.

He has served on information policy committees under successive State Governments, including the Information Society Committee of the Premier's Taskforce on Multimedia.

Provision of public Internet access has been viewed by government as the key step towards encouraging uptake among people who do not have access to technology in the home or office, and as an important means of building an equitable information society. In 2001 the Victorian Public Library Network provided over 1 million hours of public Internet access via more than 950 workstations located in over 240 sites across the state.