Community Informatics
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor: School of Management
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ
gurstein@njit.edu
What is Community Informatics?
Community Informatics (CI) is the application of information and communications
technologies (ICTs) to enable community processes and the achievement of community
objectives. Among the areas of most immediate concern and for which CI is an
appropriate response is overcoming “digital divides” – the division between technology
“haves” and “have not’s” -- both within and among communities. However, CI is not
simply concerned with responding to the “Digital Divide” issue, but also it is directed to
examining how and under what conditions, ICT access can be made usable and useful,
to the range of users including excluded populations and communities and particularly to
support local economic development, social justice and political empowerment using the
Internet.
CI is the terminology that is coming to be used to describe the academic discipline and
practise for systematically approaching Information Systems from a “community”
perspective. It is seen as paralleling Management Information Systems (MIS) in the
development of strategies and techniques for effecting community use and application
of information systems. As well, CI is closely linked with the variety of Community
Networking research and applications.
CI is based on the assumption that geographically-based communities (also known as
“physical” or “geo-local” communities) have characteristics, requirements and
opportunities that require different strategies for ICT intervention and development
different from widely accepted models of individual or in-home computer/Internet
access and use. Also, CI has arisen out of a concern for ICT use in Developing Countries
as for example through telecenters.
CI is defined as “The application of information and communications technologies to
enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives.” (Gurstein,
1999i) Other definitions proposed for Community Informatics address the use of ICT by
individuals outside of the workplace but the social or personal sphere, either around
areas of common interest or locality as in:
"The term Community Informatics (CI) refers to an emerging area of research
and practice, focusing on the use of Information Technology (IT) by human
communities. It links economic and social development at the community level
with emerging opportunities in such areas as electronic commerce, community
and civic networks, electronic democracy, self-help, advocacy, and cultural
enhancement. CI brings together the concepts of IT and information systems
with the concept of community development. As an area of research, CI is a
growing body of theory underlying one of the most exciting phenomena of the
1
last decade, namely the diffusion and use of Internet technologies within
communities" ii
CI represents an area of interest both to ICT practitioners and academic researchers and
to all those with an interest in community-based information technologies. CI addresses
the connections between the academic theory and research, and the policy and
pragmatic issues arising from the tens of thousands of "Community Networks",
"Community Technology Centres", Telecentres, Community Communications Centres,
and Telecottages currently in place globally.
This definition highlights a linkage with the field of community development, an
observation that has been increasingly made by practitioners in the field in recent years,
such as those working with community technology centers, telecenters and local
community networks. The common theme of an emerging discipline or research area
can again be seen here. The rapid evolution of the Internet and ICTs are compelling a
range of newly emerging “informatics” disciplines with the need for new approaches
understanding how the Internet and ICTs can be effectively used.
A definition of social informatics is also worthy of note, in particular in how it seems to
differ from Community Informatics:
"Social Informatics (SI) refers to the body of research and study that examines
social aspects of computerization -- including the roles of information technology
in social and organizational change and the ways that the social organization of
information technologies are influenced by social forces and social practices.iii SI
includes studies and other analyses that are labeled as social impacts of
computing, social analysis of computing, studies of computer-mediated
communication (CMC), information policy, "computers and society,"
organizational informatics, interpretive informatics, and so on."
Community Networks
The term “community network” or when being discusses as a process, “community
networking” has been used by hundreds of community-based ICT projects in many
countries for many years, and combines the sense of both the geo-local and online
contexts depending upon its usage. However, the geo-local context is basic to nearly
every attempt to define the term. The Association for Community Networking, in its
inaugural organizational publication (Community Networking, Vol.1. Issue 1. JanuaryFebruary, 1998 p.1.), defined “community networking” as occurring: "when people and
organizations collaborate locally to solve problems and create opportunities, supported
by appropriate information and communication systems. A Community Network is a
locally-based, locally-driven communication and information system."
Merriam Webster defines community as a “unified body of individuals” or “people with
common interests living in a particular area”. A Merriam Webster definition for
“network” is “a system of computers, terminals, and databases connected by
communications lines.” The combined definition could be: “A unified body of people
with common interests using a system of computers, terminals, and databases
2
connected by communications lines.” A somewhat broader definition that includes the
technical wording while incorporating social values derived from the above variations
might be:
A community network is a locally based, locally driven communication and
information system designed to enhance community and enrich lives.
The linkage between an ICT application area such as community networking and the
academic discipline of Community Informatics is quite direct, and shows the potential for
the kinds collaborations between practitioners and researchers that this NSF project
hopes to encourage.
Research Issues in CI
What characterizes a CI approach to public computing is a commitment to universality of
technology-enabled opportunity including to the disadvantaged; a recognition that the
“lived physical community” is at the very center of individual and family well-being—
economic, political, and cultural—and a belief that this can be enhanced through the
judicious use of ICTs; a sophisticated user-focussed understanding of Information
technology; and applied social leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity.
The research issues of interest to CI include the nature of "community" in a technology
enabled environment; urban as compared to rural technology applications and
strategies; and the practical significance of multiple and only partially overlapping
networked linkages (particularly ethnic/cultural) in urban communities as compared to
the more limited overlapping in rural communities. A further issue of considerable
practical importance is the on-going economic/institutional "sustainability" of local
access—how it will survive once initial funding sources and volunteer participation are
exhausted. The issue of "sustainability" of course, raises issues of the on-going benefits
that ICTs provide to community members. Also, many community technology efforts
have been linked with community empowerment, i.e. providing community members
with the tools and techniques to accomplish objectives including political and cultural
objectives that may have been impossible without these.
The most useful philosophical foundation or ethical framework for investigating
Community Informatics would be one favoring the potential for human growth and
development democracy and citizenship, and a recognition of human needs for
individual freedoms, privacy and the free expression of ideas along with a drive
towards both personal and community health and well-being. This seems obvious in a
way; however by clarifying an underlying philosophical or ethical foundation it becomes
possible to distinguish certain types of information systems and methodologies as either
useful or antithetical in the construction of Community Informatics tools.
A theory and a practise of Community Informatics is gradually developing. Partly this is
arising out of experiences with community access and community networks in the US
and Canada and partly out of a need to develop systematic approaches to some of the
challenges which ICTs are surfacing with astonishing speed, including the recognition
3
that access in itself is insufficient—rather it is what is and can be done with the access
that makes ICTs meaningful. CI is also developing out of a recognition that there is a
need to ensure a local, civic and “public” presence in an increasingly commercialized
Internet environment.
The use of ICTs as a basis for local economic development and as a way of enabling and
supporting local innovation is of considerable interest as well, particularly in the context
of communities having to adjust to the often dramatic changes in local circumstances
and opportunities resulting from technology change and globalization of production and
competition. ICTs are also emerging as a tool for enabling the development and
enhancing the effectiveness of local leadership and providing the means to create
collaborative networks of economic, social and political initiatives particularly for local
responses to externally imposed change.
Community Informatics: “Discipline” and “Practice”
CI functions both as an academic discipline for study and research and as a practice for
those working, implementing or managing community-based technology initiatives. In
both areas it is still emerging, with a number of recent initiatives in universities and
colleges and with attempts in various parts of the world to provide formalization and
certification for community based technology practitioners.
As an academic discipline CI draws resources and participants from a wide range of
backgrounds including Computer Science, Management, Information and Library
Science, Planning, Sociology, Education, Social Policy and Rural, Regional, and
Development Studies. As a practice, CI is of interest to those concerned with
Community and Local Economic Development both in Developing and Developed
Countries and has close connections with those working in such areas as Community
Development, Community Economic Development, Community Based Health
Informatics, Adult and Continuing Education, and Agricultural Extension.
Currently there are CI academic programs and research being undertaken in a number
of universities world-wide including in Australia (Central Queensland University), the UK
(University of Brighton and the University of the West of England), the University of
Buenos Aires, the University of Milan, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology and
Evergreen College in the USA and there are a number of recent Ph.D.’s including from
the University of Brighton, Aarlborg University in Denmark, Georgia Tech and UCLA and
several in the University of Michigan, School of Library and Information Science.
Other professional arenas presently producing skilled practitioners who choose to focus
their work on the effective use of ICTs in human communities. Other emerging
programs of interest include the community technology program at University of
Massachusetts Boston College of Public Service, the new Technical Communications
doctorate program in the University Of Washington, School of Engineering and the
flexible doctorate program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, School of
Computer and Information Sciences designed for the older professional. There are likely
to be many more such degree programs offered in the future, under different names
and conceptual frameworks.
4
Virtual Community Informatics
As the Internet grows, the need for this kind of convergence of relevant research and
practice is manifestly evident. Several examples identified in the discussions help to
illustrate this trend:

A recent set of large public meetings in New York City dealt with public response
to architectural design alternatives to the Twin Towers destroyed on 9/11. A
cluster of well-attended, face to face public meetings was followed up by
professionally moderated online discussions designed to capture and extend the
initial dialogues for several weeks further. The organizers of both the “realworld” interactions and the “online” interactions worked closely together to
coordinate both.

The World Bank is pursing new Knowledge Management efforts in some
development projects to link global KM, K-creation, K-repository processes, with
processes of local development including the hiring of local KM content
coordinators.

Entire Dot-Com business models sought to build virtual communities for purposes
of stimulating real-world purchases of products and services, often without
success due in part to the lack of an established research base for such a new
market.
Resources
Recent collections of papers in CI include L. Keeble & B, Loader (Eds.) Community
Informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Networks, Routledge, 2001; M. Gurstein
(Ed.) Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and
Communications Technologies, Idea Group, 2000 and the Proceedings of the IT in
Regional Areas Conference: Using Informatics to Transform Regions (Eds. S. Marshall,
Wal Taylor and Xinghou Yu). Several more are either in planning or in press.
Community Informatics currently functions
as a loose network focussed around the
elist CommunityInformatics@vcn.bc.ca
To subscribe send a message
To: majordomo@vcn.bc.ca
Message:
Subscribe communityinformatics
If anything, the overwhelming impact of the Internet has increased the challenges for
both the theory and practise of Community Informatics where CI practitioners and
researchers are leading the way forward as in the following Canadian examples,
including
 Designing ways of using ICTs to enhance the quality and coverage of
electronically enabled public services such as the Conservation Council of New
Brunswick.
5







Building, rebuilding and re-rebuilding the bridges across the Digital Divide as the
multiple chasms of income, education, location, nationality widen between the
sides such as through the Canadian Community Access Program (CAP); or
Community Learning Networks
Developing sustainable models for a community public space on the Internet
such as the Vancouver Community Network;
Developing strategies and techniques so that local E-Commerce can find ways to
co-exist/collaborate/compete with global E-Commerce such as the Strait East
Nova Scotia Community Enterprise Network; or Keewaytinook Okimakanak ;
Creating local, national, and global democratic practices in a world of Electronic
Citizenship such as WebNet;
Using the Net to support development in the Third World (such as the Acacia
Network;
Supporting communities as they find ways of using the Net to be contributors to
as well as consumers of global culture and global (See Cape Breton Music Online;
and
Applying the principles of open source to the practise of civic governance such as
Citizens for Local Democracy.
Conclusion
Community Informatics continues to provide a place where academics and practitioners
can meet and discuss issues of common interest—assess strategies, develop models,
explore controversies. As the area of community based technology applications grows,
one can expect an increasing interest in and formal institutional attention to Community
Informatics as a discipline.
The development of strategies to enable management use of ICTs to accomplish
corporate ends is a well-recognized and widely supported component of business
research, education and training. Community Informatics provides a parallel set of
opportunities for those with an interest in enabling community objectives with ICTs.
The emergence of CI suggests a maturing of community based technology initiatives
and provides continued opportunities for linking research with practice in enabling and
empowering local communities.
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. is Visiting Professor with the School of Management at the New
Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ. He was formerly on the Board of the
Vancouver Community Network, the British Columbia Community Networking Association
and Telecommunities Canada and a charter member of the Global Community
Networking Partnership.
iv
i
Gurstein, M. (Ed.) Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information
and Communications Technologies, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey PA, 1999
ii
(http://www.is2001.com/CommunityInfo1.htm) Call for papers for the Informing Science
Conference 2001, June 19-22, University of Economics, Krakow, Poland
iii
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/si/concepts.html
6
iv
7