The Promise of Wireless Enabled Electronic Community
Networking: Background and early lessons in a regional area in
Queensland
Kevin W. Tharp, Wallace Taylor,
COIN Internet Academy
Faculty of Informatics and Communication
Central Queensland University
k.tharp@cqu.edu.au; w.taylor@cqu.edu.au
and
Steve Lloyd
COIN Internet Academy
Rockhampton City Council
lloyds@rcc.qld.gov.au
ABSTRACT
This paper examines issues surrounding the adoption of wireless enabled electronic
community networks in a regional area in Queensland, Australia. It briefly examines
the history of electronic community networks and their setting in creating social
capital in geo-communities. It then reviews the application issues for a pilot project
for wireless enabled electronic community network in the regional location and
proposes base issues to be considered for a participative research project.
KEY WORDS
Community networks, community informatics systems, wireless technology, ICT,
social capital.
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INTRODUCTION
The popular evolution of new Internet based Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT) has been rapidly expanding over the last ten years in developed
countries where there is a telecommunications infrastructure. Indeed, in developed
countries new ICT applications are often made obsolete by new generation upgrades
before they have been competently adopted by consumers. In these consumer based
societies, there has been a great deal of focus on access to infrastructure , the supply
of ICT which is becoming known as the “build it and they will come” approach
(Gurstein, 2002). In attempting to address inequities in access in both developed and
developing countries, there is growing thought that the needs of the individual and the
community should be the priority, and that the technology should fit community need
rather than trying to fit perceptions of need to the technology (Gronski & Pigg, 2000;
Gurstein, 2002; Utsumi, 2002, Castells, 1996).
A current application of Internet based ICT capturing the imagination of organisation
based operations, practitioners and project managers is wireless networking which is
defined as the use of wireless based applications to allow ICT based networking. At
the community level this often means the use of license free spectrum and the 802.11b
standard. Wireless community networks are now becoming more evident in lower
socio-economic situations and amongst small bands of technocrats in developed
countries and are being promoted in developing situations because of their lack of
reliance of high cost telecommunications infrastructure. This paper looks at the
phenomenon of electronic community networking and how wireless enabled
community networks can be used as a tool for local community benefit, to strengthen
existing social networks and the resultant social capital within a community. It will
commence by examining the electronic community networking construct, its history
and possible application to the creation of social capital and conclude with some
preliminary experience in Rockhampton, Australia.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNITY NETWORKS
The idea of community networks is not new. After all, they were the basis of village,
tribal, cultural and social life for eons. However, the emergence of new Internet
based ICT has added a new and dynamic dimension to the concept and takes it
beyond the structural, social and cultural restrictions inherent in previous incarnations.
Early community networks were primarily limited to the people who interacted faceto-face within family and community. Subsequent analysis of the effects of these
community networks on economic, social and cultural wellbeing led to the
development of (Actor) Network Theory (Araujo & Easton, 1996)) Strong network
ties in these situations were defined as those most closely associated with personal
life, family, friends and neighbours (Kraut et al., 1998). Weak network ties were
defined as those related to work, religious affiliation, club or organisational
membership, or even casual acquaintances with in the same community (Granovetter,
1982).
The introduction of print media, radio, telephone and television extended the concept
of community networks and particularly weak network ties to include people
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encountered in more superficial ways and beyond the restrictions inherent with faceto-face based networks. The Internet and other Computer Mediated Communications
(CMC) have now extended these geographical and social boundaries even further and
into new dimensions involving mixtures of asynchronicity, social presence,
anonymity and the virtual. People are now able to sit at their computers and in new
ways ‘get to know’ people from around the world.
Early online networks – community and public spaces
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Internet was still relatively little known
and not widely accessible, online community networks frequently called Bulletin
Board Systems (BBS), Community Networks (CN), or Community Information
Networks (CIN) began to emerge (Tharp, 2002). These were often set up by
individuals or community groups and generally consisted of a local computer serving
as a host to others through phone lines and modems. The individuals dialling into
these networks generally had access to some local information, but the dynamic
component was the ability to communicate with others in electronic mail or online
discussion software. This functionality became the basis for what were frequently
relatively closed systems of people from similar geographic regions. The regular
interactions, sharing of knowledge, and in many cases supported by face-to-face
gatherings produced shared experiences, norms and expectations with others using
these systems. Being embedded in existing social systems amongst early adopters,
these BBS, CN and CIN also produced punitive actions for those members who did
not abide by the existing social norms and expectations of other members
This dynamic evolved even further when people were able to dial in to their local
community network, and then gained the option of exploring the then relatively sparse
and difficult to use Internet. In the United States, the National Public
Telecommunications Network (NPTN), provided applications and information in the
form of their Freeport software and the Freenet was born. Freeport allowed local
communities to post local information via gopher, and it also allowed for the creation
of public spaces frequently referred to as the public square. When community
members dialled in, they were immediately in the middle of the local online
community, surrounded by opportunities to interact with other people from the same
geographic community. This allowed online discussions, debate, and casual chat.
Users developed online personas and there was a lot of sharing of information about
how to use this new technology. As new members joined the online communities, the
similar questions were frequently raised by those not familiar with the operations of
online communities, and this led to senior members of these communities creating
the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) files. This avoided repeating the same
information in the public spaces, yet still provided the necessary learning environment
for ‘newbies’ to become acculturated. These virtual experiences provided a new
space for people to present different views in the absence of traditional controls on
behaviour associated with more traditional interpersonal interactions. This resulted in
challenges to existing norms that weren’t always pleasant, but which resulted in the
development of new ‘gate keeper’ and other types of roles within these online
communities.
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Mosaic was the first graphical user interface, and allowed people to run software from
their own computer to navigate the Internet. This allowed communities to put up web
pages with multi-media content for public viewing. This made navigating the Internet
much more user friendly and entertaining, and it allowed individuals to self-publish.
But, this development also began the decline in geographically based online
community networks where people came to gather for discussion, debate and
entertainment. Whilst there are still numerous community networks, many have taken
on a mass media persona, broadcasting information about the community rather than
acting like virtual public squares where community discourse is likely to take place.
A further problem with these early attempts at electronically based community
networks related to financial and resource sustainability. Volunteering formed a large
part of the initial effort and many projects were dependent upon short term project
funding from public agencies. When the project funds were expended there was
increasing pressure from funding agencies and support agencies for the electronic
community networks projects to develop income streams. These efforts often took the
resources into domains far removed from the basic concept of community networks as
being a contributor to social fabric and towards their efforts being prioritised against
economic viability. Further, the impact of this when coupled with volunteer ‘burn
out’ and loss of volunteer interest meant that many electronically supported
community networks not only changed focus and became increasingly dependent
upon public sector inputs, but also became less relevant to wider community interests
before thy had the chance to create a sustainable audience.The advent of wireless
based ICT is being seen by some as a low cost means of revitalizing the
geographically based community network.
Social Capital
Since Putnam’s repopularisation the social capital construct that articulated the
association between participation in social networks and community well being, there
have been a number of works commenting on and extending the application of social
capital. Putnam’s original constructs were social networks, reciprocity and trust
(Putnam, 1995). However, if the definition of social capital is focused on its sources,
rather than on its consequences, the constructs of norms and social networks emerge
as the defining components with trust a closely associated consequence (Putnam,
2001; Woolcock, 2001). This extension provides for the inclusion of a focus on how
individuals interact within social networks, in ways that may not be in their own selfinterest at the time, but benefit the larger community.
Social capital is seen as a relational variable, a property of groups rather than of
individuals (Schuller, 2001; Woolcock, 2001). While social capital may lie with
individuals, it is not activated except through the interaction with other individuals,
groups, and the community. Putnam focused on participation in social networks and
this was strongly correlated across a number of variables as a indicators in improved
community well-being (Putnam, 1995, 2000). A number of researchers have debated
the measures used by Putnam and questioned whether they accurately measured social
participation (Schudson, 1996; Skocpol, 1996). However, there is now enough
evidence to indicate that strong social networks and relationships appear to have
positive impacts on individual or community health (Berkman & Glass, 2000;
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Kawachi & Berkman, 2000; Veenstra, 2001), economics (Cote, 2001; Glaeser, 2001;
Omori, 2001; Woolcock, 2001) and overall community well-being (Putnam, 1995,
2000, 2001) to justify research into active engagement in activities designed to
increase access to social networks within communities.
The hope of electronic learning communities is based on the philosophy that
individuals must invest, manage and maintain their own social networks and
community connections (Utsumi, 2002, Castells, 1996)
WIRELESS ENABLED ELECTRONIC COMMUNITY NETWORKS
The use of the license free spectrums set aside for general use in developed countries,
and computer based wireless network cards have made it possible to communicate
with other computer users without the need for land based telephone lines and their
related charges. Originally marketed for use by businesses, universities and other
corporate use, community based activists, demonstrating the innovativeness of the
people that originally set up BBS, CN, CIN and Freenets, are now taking it to the
airwaves with their computers to develop low cost community access to ICT. The
activists developing the processes for community wireless based ICT, are embedding
low cost and independence into their efforts. This often includes the use of open
source software and Sometimes using Pringles cans or coffee cans to design external
high gain antennas. These modern age electronic community networkers have started
a grass roots movement that is gaining momentum amongst pockets of technical
enthusiasts, low socio-economic areas in developing countries and is being explored
in developing countries where land based telecommunications infrastructure is
limited.
Some of the advantages of the wireless based approach to extending the use of ICT
are obvious. For example, wireless area network providing connection free from the
limitations and restrictions associated with traditional wire or fibre networks can be
created. Using such an approach with the basic equipment that can be readily
purchased off the shelf and a clear line of site, computers can connect to each other
from approximately 300 meters or 1000 feet with the promise of access speeds up to
11Mbps. A common motivation amongst enthusiasts for starting these community
wireless networks is to share excess broadband capacity to the Internet.
As a part of the evolution of this new application, resourceful individuals have learned
that they can ‘share’ corporate bandwidth through unsecured wireless networks being
more widely available outside of the physical corporate location (euphemistically
known as ‘bleeding out into the street’) where they can be picked up by anyone with a
computer with minimal technical knowledge and a wireless card. While this is an
advantage to the knowledgeable individual, it is obviously a disadvantage to
corporations not wishing to share access to their networks. However, there are
measures that the developers of wireless networks can take to keep unauthorized
individuals from routing within their wireless network. But it needs to be noted that
there is no effective way of keeping people from listening in to the traffic that goes
over a wireless network using a license free spectrum. Whilst security solutions are
evolving, open spectrum wireless does not provide information security.
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With few if any exceptions, the current development of wireless community networks
focused intently on the technology aspects. Issues such as how to use it, how to
expand it, where to find connections, how to get by on the cheap, and how to make it
work on personal computers, are the themes most frequently encountered when
communicating with those involved with wireless networks or viewing their web
sites. There are also unresolved issues in governance policy and the associated
legalities. For example, the Melbourne Wireless organisation in Australia is in the
process of seeking input from all Australian wireless community networks to develop
a position statement for the Australian government agency examining the role and
acceptable use of wireless community networks in Australia.
LOCAL EXPERIENCE
The Central Queensland Wireless (CQWireless) community group in Rockhampton
(Australia) has noticed that that there is no discussion of local content in the position
paper currently being developed by Melbourne Wireless. In the living room of John
Cook, the driver and president of the CQWireless group, 8 to 10 men ranging from
late teens to mid 30s sit around planning for their network. The conversation hits on
the obvious technical topics, but there is also a focus on what will be available on the
network. This network is somewhat unique in that while there is discussion about
broadband Internet access, there is a realization that at least initially, this network
isn’t about Internet access. Its first stage is being designed as a closed system for
local content and interaction, with the idea that maybe later it might expand to serve
as a gateway to the Internet, but that brings in some serious complications in the
virtual ISP monopoly that exists in Australia. The guys talk of trying to develop local
content and interaction amongst the people in their own community and how to get
people involved. They also talk of ping times and online gaming.
CQWireless, a community based group of enthusiasts, is partnering the pilot of a
wireless network with the COIN Internet Academy which is a partnership between the
Central Queensland University and the Rockhampton City Council. COIN is a
Community Informatics based initiative aimed at developing the use of ICT for local
community benefit through existing and new Community Based Organisations (CBO)
and examining methods to improve social capital in the local environment. The
involvement of two of the biggest bureaucracies in Rockhampton brings both
advantages and disadvantages to this initiative. The advantages lie in public
perceptions of legitimacy and access to skills and resources.
However, the bureaucratisation of management processes associated with large
traditional public agencies brings particular problems in responsiveness to innovation
that sits outside their established service provision protocols and structures. In the
case of the wireless enabled community network project, the COIN Board, comprised
of three representatives from senior and middle management from each organisation,
formally agreed to proceed with the project. However, it took five months to obtain
the necessary internal approvals for the equipment purchased by the University to
support the network as a research project to be actually delivered. Further, the
necessary approvals from the City Council to allow the access points and aerials to be
placed on a city council tower on the highest point in the city had not been obtained
six months from the formal agreement to proceed.
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Another issue which the involvement of collaborative bureaucracies can assist, relates
to funding. The establishment costs of projects such as these are often beyond the
capacity of individuals and CBO. On top of this, recovering the outlay costs is
difficult when the benefits are so ubiquitous. So sharing establishment costs between
the agencies not only removes the burden from the CBO, but also helps embed
organisational legitimacy and support into the project.
The geography across the proposed location is also an important issue. The geography
of the local community selected for the CQWireless pilot project involves a number
of undulations within a valley and significant tree cover, both of which effect line of
sight applications such as community wide wireless access within this bandwidth.
Hence, there is no one single location for a small number (three) access point and
aerials to provide full community coverage. An additional difficulty for this particular
project is that the home locations of the project leaders for the pilot project make a
single site option difficult for them to test the approach.
Experience gained from other Australian locations indicates that these sorts of
technical, geographic, political and economic barriers are common issues to overcome
by any community-based wireless based electronic community initiative. Further to
this, even when the network is operational, there is no guarantee that an aggressive
approach by a knowledgeable person with basic equipment won’t cause major
interference problems.
The Personal Telco, an established Freenet in Portland, Oregon has recently been
confronted with this issue. Starbucks, the retail coffee corporation, has come in and
set up a hot zone in Portland, in an area already covered by the Freenet and using the
same channel that Personal Telco had been operational on for six months (Kosseff &
Hand, 2002). This experience highlights one of the major concerns for wireless
enabled community networks, especially in metropolitan areas. Because the network
used is an open public spectrum, there are no rules about who can set up, or how
competing uses should cooperate with each other. This, and the reality that
performance degrades with each additional simultaneous user, are issues affecting the
scaling of wireless enabled electronic community networks.
One view is that this may be less of an issue in regional and remote communities and
some areas of less developed nations. Such areas are generally underserved or not
served at all with last mile broadband infrastructure or have no affordable access at
all. It is in such situations wireless enabled processes hold out the most hope and
promise for community networking.
There are a number of circumstances where traditional land based infrastructure
access models are not yet practical. These impracticalities can be based on
geographic, economic, and cultural characteristics or on combinations of these factors
For instance in Uttaranchal, the Northern Indian State in the foothills of the
Himalayas , there are major difficulties in providing infrastructural access, and the
people are not prepared socially or economically for widespread availability of new
ICT. In situations like this, people are consumed with daily activities associated with
maintaining existence. Under these circumstances, the communities understandably
find it difficult to understand where ICT could provide local benefit. Children of
secondary school age are forced to leave their communities in order to continue
formal education, and thus every day traditional knowledge is being lost to the
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younger generations who have the immediate potential to instigate change in their
communities based on local adoption of ICT in crafts, tourism and history (Jaggi,
2002). It is conceivable that a wireless community network could not only extend
access to ICT in such places, but allow the development of culturally appropriate
solutions to some of the immediate community needs to increase self reliance above
subsistence levels.
Whether in these developing situations or in low socio-economic situations in
developed countries, experience in community and economic development clearly
shows success is predicated on working with the community to design specific
solutions based on their ‘owned’ needs. Evaluation of many information technology
plans based heavily on the supply of infrastructure in the absence of community
engagement and training invariably fail (Pigg, 1998; Rosenbaum and Gregson, 1998;
Gurman, 2002).
Further, here are concerns over the misuse, distortion and falsification of information
about community and cultural groups if the material was made readily available on
the Internet. At the same time, there are concerns about the loss of traditional
knowledge and the need to reclaim and preserve cultures. For example, the indigenous
Maori of New Zealand are engaged in a debate over the appropriate use of ICT in
their communities whilst recognising that Maori children are growing up in a world
where they will be exposed to and dependant upon ICT skills (Kamira, 2002). A
closed, or relatively closed wireless network might serve as a culturally appropriate
solution to some of the unique needs of Maori and other indigenous peoples. As
indicated in sections above, this type of solution needs to involve people from within
the community to insure that it is culturally appropriate and acceptable to the local
community and their needs. Despite the obvious limitations, wireless enabled
electronic networks may provide a low-cost option that delivers opportunities for the
community that are not otherwise available.
These approaches for wireless enabled electronic community networks are also
options for rural and regional areas in more developed situations. Provided they are
introduced with appropriate levels of training and integration with other life skills,
wireless enabled community networks offer the ability to interact with others in a
geographic area without the ongoing expenses associated with landlines and Internet
access fees. Using such an approach cooperatives could be formed to take advantage
of bulk buying of bandwidth, or the wireless could serve as access to traditional ISPs
saving both the consumer and ISP money over modem usage.
Further, wireless enabled electronic community networks can also offer an immediate
low cost option for business communities threatened by the effects of economies of
scale on local margins in order to gain local exposure and to support the maintenance
of local demand. Supporting the establishment of wireless enabled electronic
community networks may provide the opportunity for them to compete with the
flexible price comparison capacity now offered nationally and globally on the Internet
through locally supported ‘bricks and click’ alternatives. Concerns about demand and
cost recovery are major limitations for local businesses in Rockhampton from
establishing and maintaining a web presence (Goody, CEO Rockhampton Regional
Development, pers. com., 2002).
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But it would appear from local and international experience that the technological
issues aren’t going to be the difficult part of establishing wireless enabled electronic
community networks. Like all ICT advances in the past, this wireless based
technology is going to continue to evolve, and the existing telco monopolies will
undoubtedly do their best to maintain control and limit their loss of income from the
utilization of this particular technology. As with all community networking
initiatives, the difficulty is how to insure the broadly based needs, as opposed to
perceptions of retail based and public agency service provision needs, of the people
are the focus of the initiative. Fundamental to this approach is in answering the
question ‘How can we use these resources so that people feel welcome and
comfortable in using it to increase their own social capital resources?’.
The promise of wireless for community networking is not only in the creation of new
social networks for the development of social capital. The promise of community
networks is that it can provide opportunities to expand upon existing social networks
in a community and make them accessible to more people, thus provide opportunities
for individual people and family groups to engage with social networks to which they
previously had limited access.
The approaches outlined above form the basis of the philosophical approach being
used by by the COIN Internet Academy in Rockhampton in establishing the Central
Queensland Wireless Community Network (CQWireless). Using the thought process
of “Come and we will build it”, resources are being made available to the citizens of
the region to allow them to create their own electronic learning communities. The
concept of creating learning communities is based on using ‘one to many’, ‘one to
one’ and ‘many to many’ forms of learning which recognises that there is a wealth of
knowledge in the community residing in the minds of the community. Frequently the
community availability of this knowledge is limited in tightly bound social networks.
The premise is that learning communities based on wireless enabled electronic
community networks can start from the existing local interests and knowledge and be
grown through improving community based access to these social networks. In
examining the success and failure of previous electronic community networks, many
researchers have alluded to the importance of locally relevant content (see for
example Preece, 2000). Whilst this mantra has become ‘motherhood’, experience is
showing that achieving sustainability in locally relevant content in electronic
community networks has not been easy to obtain in smaller heterogenous geopopulations of less than 200 000. By using a process of starting with small
communities of interest in hobbies, pastimes, lifestyle etc, and supporting this with
specific training in the use of the technology for online activity, CQWireless and
COIN hope to examine a new construct in electronic community networks using
Participative Action Research and ethnographic methodologies
CONCLUSIONS
The emergence of wireless networking technology has provided an alternative to last
mile (or first mile) access to electronic community networking that may provide
creative solutions to areas with limited or no broadband access due to economic,
cultural, or geographic circumstances. Community activists have begun using this
technology to begin building wireless enabled community networks. The
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environment and rhetoric is similar to that heard in the late 1980s and 1990s when
community minded individuals began the various iterations of the online community
networking movement using the first stages of ICT and then Internet based
approaches.
This paper has provided an introductory examination of the factors involved in
establishing and maintaining wireless enabled electronic community networks and
concluded that :
agency support,

cost of access,

commencing with existing CBO,

content development,

ongoing training,

overcoming privacy concerns and dealing with external noise in an open
medium,

developing coping strategies for interference,

overcoming community apathy in areas with low social capital,

the lack of public policy and

geography
are some of the issues outside of the immediate technological factors which will
need strategies and tactics in the establishment of wireless enabled electronic
community networks.
Using the CQWireless CBO, the COIN Internet Academy aims to examine factors
affecting the establishment of a wireless based electronic community network in a
regional area in Queensland Australia and in the establishment of a Community
Informatics System based on this approach using a Participative Action Research
methodology.
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