next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 13:39:59 -0800 From: Michael Gurstein <mgurst@techbc.ca> [...] Community Informatics in a Canadian Context 25/02/00 Canadians, pre-occupied as we are with the vigour and accomplishments of our neighbours to the South, tend to overlook our own strengths and achievements. Before the brouhaha about the "Digital Divide" in the US or the "Wiring the Nation" ruckus in the UK, Canadians have been rather quietly, but persistently, and with an immense measure of imagination and institutional creativity, making huge advances in the area which is coming to be called "Community Informatics". Community Informatics is the application of information and communications technologies to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives-overcoming "digital divides", "wiring (and ensuring connectivity for) the farthest reaches of a far-flung nation"; but even more important, working to find ways of making the enormous opportunities of Internet connectivity of real value to local communities in achieving their economic, social and cultural objectives. Without a great deal of public fanfare, Canada through a variety of initiatives and programs-Community Telecentres as in rural Newfoundland; Freenets such as those in Ottawa and Winnipeg; Community Networks such as Chebucto (Halifax), and Vancouver; SchoolNet, the Community Access Program (CAP), and now Volnet and NetCorps; Community Learning Networks and the Office of Learning Technology; the Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (C\CEN) in Cape Breton; Web Networks in Toronto; are all (or have been) world standards and models for how the opportunities and advantages of the new technologies (ICT's) can be made "universally" available, and not just to those with the advantage of an urban location, a home computer, or the funds to support the Internet "habit". What has characterized the Canadian approach to public computing is what has characterized the best of Canadian public policy in other areas-a commitment to universality; a concern to understand and respond to the needs of the disadvantaged; the desire to be producers of culture as well as consumers; a quiet practicality and an absence of rhetoric; and public sector policy leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity. The dark-side as well is very typically Canadian-Federal Provincial wrangling, intra-bureaucratic rivalries, short sighted inattention from the private sector. But overall, in the area of the Community Informatics, Canada has been and remains a world leader. Community Telecentres have been the model for public Internet access throughout Africa; CAP has been a model adopted in Australia and rural areas throughout South and Central America; Chebucto Suite is the software of choice for Community Networks world-wide; C\CEN has been reproduced in Virginia, Australia and Egypt. If anything the overwhelming impact of the Internet has increased the challenges for both the theory and practise of Community Informatics where Canadian practitioners and researchers are leading the way forward: * designing ways of using ICTs to enhance the quality and coverage of electronically enabled public services <http://cnbb.unb.ca> * building, rebuilding and re-rebuilding the bridges across the Digital Divide as the multiple chasms of income, education, location, nationality widen between the sides <http://cap.ic.gc.ca/>; <http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/CLN/> * developing sustainable models for a community public space on the Internet <http://vcn.bc.ca> * developing the strategies and techniques so that local E-Commerce can find ways to co-exist/collaborate/compete with global E-Commerce <http://www.techbc.ca/~gurstein/cceng/cceng.html>; <http://sencen.ednet.ns.ca; http://www.knet.on.ca/info.html> * creating local, national, and global democratic practices in a world of Electronic Citizenship <http://www.web.net> * using the Net to support development in the Third World <http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/>. * supporting communities as they find ways of using the Net to be contributors to as well as consumers of global culture and global <http://www.cbmusic.com>; and * applying the principles of open source to the practise of governance <http://www.c4ld.org> A theory and a practise of Community Informatics is gradually developing partly out of experiences such as those in Canada and partly out of a need to develop systematic approaches to some of the challenges which ICTs are surfacing with astonishing speed: * the need to enable and reinforce community processes using ICT's * the need for training and for technical usability * the need (but difficulty) of local sustainability * the recognition that access in itself is insufficient-it is what is and can be done with the access that is the objective, and * the extraordinary power at the interface of virtual and spatial communities. And some questions still remain: what role can Telecentres play in ensuring access to the marginal and illiterate; how can the net be used to support minority languages and cultures at risk; can the Net restore vigour to flagging processes of democratic participation; can there be a local economy in the midst of an Internet enabled global one? These issues emerge out of the reality of the transformation which is taking place and which underlie the glitz and the buzz about IPO's and "click through" rates. There is also an important research agenda for Community Informatics including linking the variety of advanced ICT tools-GIS/GPS, CSCW (computer supported collaborative work) and Artificial Intelligence software into community processes and applications (including designing interfaces which make them more broadly accessible and usable); understanding the interrelationships between virtual and spatially determined social processes; and designing usable public E-services in such areas as Health, Life Long Learning, public information and so on. Finally there is the need to establish a firmer link between the theory and research of Community Informatics and the practise, policies and programming so that these are mutually informative and supportive. Overall, there is the opportunity to take the experience which is being gained in Canada in Community Informatics into the global "marketplace", both by selling programs (software or bureaucratic) and by supporting those with knowledge in translating that experience into the kinds of E-products which can not only compete in, but create new markets and even new marketplaces. And equally, there is a role for Canada in ensuring that as a "public/community space" on the Internet has been encouraged and supported to develop within "Canadian cyberspace" so there must be provision globally through financial support and policy development for the opportunities of a Community Informatics dimension to develop in the global "cybersphere". Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. Associate Professor Management and Technology Director: Centre for Community Informatics The Technical University of British Columbia 10334-152A Street, Surrey, B.C. CANADA V3R 7P8 T 604-586-6046 F 604-586-5237 gurstein@techbc.ca http://www.techbc.ca
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects