11/9 Speaker: Andrew Clement, University of Toronto Faculty of Information Studies

11/9 Speaker: Andrew Clement, University of Toronto Faculty of Information Studies

By seramar November 7th, 2007

CIC Seminar Fall 2007

Here is the descripton and bio for this week's speaker, Andrew Clement. Please review his recommended background reading and post questions or thoughts for Andrew as a comment below prior to Friday's seminar.

Friday, November 9, 2007, 12-1:30
311 West Hall (via videoconference)
Andrew Clement
University of Toronto Faculty of Information Studies

“The CRACIN Project: Case Studies of Community Networking Initiatives in Canada”
The Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN.ca) is a three-way partnership between university researchers, government policy officials and community practitioners. Inspired by action-research ideals and using qualitative methods, it conducted a range of in-depth cases studies of community networking (CN) initiatives across Canada. The studies are linked thematically around issues such as broadband service in rural and remote areas, free/open source software, WiFi networking, libraries and CNs, and public policy.

This talk will give an overview of the CRACIN project,
its accomplishments and limitations, highlighting selected case studies
in both urban and remote settings that sought to develop various forms
of community-based ICT infrastructures.

SUGGESTED READINGS:

For background on the project and its original program of research, see:

Clement,
A., et. al. (2004). "The Canadian Research Alliance for Community
Innovation and Networking (CRACIN): A Research Partnership and Agenda
for Community Networking in Canada" in The Journal of Community
Informatics, (2004) Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 7-20.

http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/207/164

CRACIN site: http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/iprp/cracin/ for overview of individual projects.

Background readings on the individual cases to be discussed are attached- please select one of particular interest to you to take a look at and think of questions about before Friday's talk.

In my talk we will cover briefly the following 3 CRACIN case
studies, with the associated grad student field researcher and paper:

1. K-net (First nation networking in Northern Ontario) - Adam Fiser, field researcher

The K-Net Development Process:
A Model for First Nations Broadband Community Networks, Adam Fiser and Andrew Clement & Brian Walmark

2. St. Christopher House (Urban community and social service agency in Toronto) - Susan Macdonald, field researcher

Systems Development as iterative Organizational Learning: Lessons from the St Christopher House Community Learning Network (Susan MacDonaldand Andrew Clement, draft chapter attached)

3. Wireless Nomad (Urban WiFi coop in Toronto) Matt Wong, field researcher

Wirelesss Broadband from Individual Backhaul to Community Service: Cooperative Provision and Related Models
of Local Signal Access, Matthew Wong (draft chapter, attached)

Adam, Susan and Matt will be joining me in the videoconference and will speak about their projects for about 7 mins each.

Another paper that may be of interest to your students is:

Enabling
Communities in the Networked City: ICTs and Civic Participation Among
Immigrants and Youth in Urban Canada, Diane Dechief, Graham
Longford , Alison Powell & Kenneth C. Werbin (attached)

but none of these authors will be attending.

Obviously
I don't expect everyone to read all this in such a short time, but
hopefully they take a look at one that most interests them and ask
questions.

best,

Andrew.

BIO:

Andrew
Clement is a Professor in the Faculty of Information Studies at the
University of Toronto, where he coordinates the Information Policy
Research Program. He has had longstanding research and teaching
interests in the social implications of information/communication
technology and human-centred systems development. His recent
research has focused on public information policy, internet use in
everyday life, digital identity constructions, public participation in
information/communication infrastructure development, and community
networking. Clement is the principal investigator of the Canadian
Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN.ca) and is a co-investigator of the Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project (CWIRP.ca).