CUWiN &
Informatics: Early ideas
October 1, 2009
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1. What is Community Informatics
• CI: the study or practice regarding the continuity of
local, historical communities meeting the transformation
of information technologies
• Libraries by reinventing themselves (I&R, job centers,
OPACs) invented community networks (made of siliconplus-carbon)
• From social informatics comes three key ideas: network
society, hacker ethic, and digital divide
…the LOCAL community is the central focus here
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2. Community: ‘Race’, place and history
1. Science says, One race, the human race. Our species has
always migrated, our differences are within group not
between group. No one trait is found across a group.
2. Racism is real … What to do? Stay educated (on past,
present, future) … Practice diversity in curriculum,
profession, library
3. Class: an emergent phenomenon, as well as a categorical
or positional reality, thanks to techno-economic changes
4. Root Shock: Severing people’s connections to places.
“The traumatic stress reaction to destruction of one’s
emotional ecosystem.” Mass upheavals have ripple
effect. Solution: Acknowledge. Create healing places.
Displacement the 21st C problem.
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5. ‘Damned by ourselves, saved by community.’
3. Dig Div, Community as network
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Dig Div: a fxn of the information revolution. Persistent,
multidimensional & changing. CI solutions mean a)
communities not individuals b) seeking sustainability
2. Society ≠ Individuals … Society = Ties !
3. Wellman/Leighton: Urbanization brings…
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Community found/strong nhood networks?
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Community lost/no networks?
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Community liberated/metropolitan networks?
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[Q: where do space and time go in SN theory?]
4. Coleman: Closed networks build social capital
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So do open networks! e.g. Murchison Center
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3a. Network models
groups as nodes
strong & weak ties…
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dense and sparse networks
4. UC2B
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UC2B: 36 million in stimulus/other funds. 2 cities + univ. Fiber laid across cities,
100 Mbps to 137 critical anchor institutions, 5 Mbps to 2500+ homes in 12 lowbroadband census tracts. Above ground, support for broadband adoption.
UC2B Above Ground, 3+ years, guided by GSLIS:
1. 45 + 1 public computing centers boosted or established
2. Mad Lab in N Champaign (Music Access Digitization), HQ for community helpdesk,
14 outreach/support staff
3. 17 cybernavigators serving 46 ctrs + 12 sectors serving low income people (health, ed,
libs, homeless, seniors, women, disabled, safety, churches, comm ctrs, media/culture)
4. Three course sequence for 50 UI/Parkland/high school students, public video
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Broadband 101 spring: what’s it all about
Broadband 102 summer: paid broadband internships
Broadband 103 fall: community-serving bband entrepreneurship, $50K in awards
5. UC2B’s community helpdesk
6. Community advisory committee, research advisory committee, PCCNet
7. Community first, technology second (CI approach)
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Similarly nationwide 2010-2012; nat’l bband plan by Feb 2010; broadband.gov
Link to entire UC2B application
on City of Champaign site:
http://tinyurl.com/completeUC2B
4a. Community and disaster:
recap to come
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5. Search for bband data, and
virtual community
• BTOP grant specs released within weeks of due date … had to prove
“underserved,” but how? … ATLAS stepped forward, led community survey … 40+
helped … 4 day campaign for numbers proved 12 census block groups eligible …
will AT&T challenge? Find out next month…
• From the bbs: The curse of grants and the challenge of inequality and difference
• WELL: report from the info rev: virtual comm is possible, personal, gotta feel it
– Virtual community as family & friend support network stands on and builds FTF
• Wikipedia: social norms and technical design enable virtual community growth
from 200 to 200,000 people … to … build an encyclopedia!?!
– A culture e.g. simple rules for people like “Be Bold,” “NPOV” “Nice to newbies” “sofixit”
– A technology e.g. software features like talk page … history … translation
– What should people know about Wikipedia?
– What can we learn for real-world communities?
[commons based peer production,
crowdsourcing]
• PS: comm vs .com (Spaniards walk & WELLites share vs SN sites as corporations)
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5. Search for bband data, and
virtual community
• A campaign: campus mobilized, structured reachout to community, 40 volunteers
Navigating the complexities of the grant competition
Found higher rate of broadband take-up  12 block groups eligible
community  campus / corporations (telecoms)
• From the bbs: The curse of grants and the challenge of inequality and difference
• WELL: report from the info rev: virtual comm is possible, personal, gotta feel it
– Virtual community as family & friend support network stands on and builds FTF
• Wikipedia: social norms and technical design enable virtual community growth
from 200 to 200,000 people … to … build an encyclopedia!?!
–
–
–
–
A culture e.g. simple rules for people like “Be Bold,” “NPOV” “Nice to newbies” “sofixit”
A technology e.g. software features like talk page … history … translation
What should people know about Wikipedia?
[commons based peer production,
What can we learn for real-world communities?
crowdsourcing]
• PS: comm vs .com (Spaniards walk & WELLites share vs SN sites as corporations)
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Agenda
• ‘judy olson time managenment.ppt’ online
• Working the class/Making the class work for you
– Writing?  Now … theory, ideas, discussion
– The curse of grants
– The challenge of community organization / turtle metaphor
• Computer Learning Month / how does it look?
• Informatics: Early ideas
– Bush
– Kling
– Mitchell
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