Community Informatics

Here's a very innovative content collecting (and CIC-relevant content too!) mechanism posted recently to the Community Informatics email list. Contribute if you can.

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"Next week I will be giving a speech titled, "Everyday Citizens: Community Life in the Information Age." I've been gathering interesting local examples and plan to share them more widely as well. … Read more »

The second issue of the on-line peer reviewed Journal of Community Informatics - http://ci-journal.net is now available. This issue takes as its theme the “Sustainability of Community ICTs”.

Simpson provides a thorough and wide-ranging analysis of the relationship between "Sustainability" and "Social Capital" and a very useful theoretical introduction to both sets of concepts.

Technology Opportunities Program of the Department of Commerce

Here are tentative descriptions of CIC student projects that would be connected to our community informatics data archive project in partnership with TOP and others.

1. Make a mirror of the website of the largest community technology funder in the US. Site contains a db of 600+ projects which would be part of mirror. This project is part of archiving this unique community informatics history. Work on your own, but liaise with Kate Williams, Joan Durrance, and website staff at Department of Commerce. (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/top/)

2. Make a collection (electronic e.g. pdfs) of documents regarding the Technology Opportunities Program: any mentions in congressional records; testimony by TOP staff to Congress or in hearings; NY Times articles.
Index that by TOP staff. Use docs to produce a table indicating annual funding of TOP 1994-2005. Work on your own, but liaise with Kate Williams and Joan Durrance.

Each of these projects could certainly be DFEs, probably one credit (60 hours). … Read more »

The Journal of Community Informatics

http://ci-journal.net/

"The Journal of Community Informatics aims to bring together a global range of academics, CI practitioners and national and multi-lateral policy makers policy makers."

"Community Informatics (CI) is the study and the practice of enabling communities with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). CI seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of ICTs to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the “digital divides” that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ICT application including for health, cultural production, civic management, e-governance among others." … Read more »