Journal of Community Informatics (2004–)
Filed under journal | Tags: · activism, civil society, community, community informatics, digital divide, e-government, gender, ict, information technology, internet, learning, technology, wireless networks
“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. CI is concerned with how ICT can be useful to the range of traditionally excluded populations and communities, and how it can support local economic development, social justice and political empowerment using the Internet. CI is a point of convergence concerning the use of ICTs for diverse stakeholders, including community activists, nonprofit groups, policymakers, users/citizens, and the range of academics working across (and integrating) disciplines as diverse as Information Studies, Management, Computer Science, Social Work, Planning and Development Studies. Emerging issues within the CI field include: community access to the internet, community information, online civic participation and community service delivery, community and local economic development, training networks, telework, social cohesion, learning, e-health and e-governance. 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. Each issue of the Journal of Community Informatics contains a number of double blind peer-reviewed research articles as well as commentaries by leading CI practitioners and policy makers providing feedback on how the significance and application of research for practice and policy development.”
Editor in Chief: Michael Gurstein
Associate editors: Shaun Pather, Alvin Wee Yeo
Open access
ISSN 1712-4441
Zizi Papacharissi (ed.): A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (2010)
Filed under book | Tags: · community, facebook, identity, internet, mass media, myspace, networks, virtual communities, web 2.0, youtube
A Networked Self examines self presentation and social connection in the digital age. This collection brings together new work on online social networks by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. The focus of the volume rests on the construction of the self, and what happens to self-identity when it is presented through networks of social connections in new media environments. The volume is structured around the core themes of identity, community, and culture – the central themes of social network sites. Contributors address theory, research, and practical implications of many aspects of online social networks including self-presentation, behavioral norms, patterns and routines, social impact, privacy, class/gender/race divides, taste cultures online, uses of social networking sites within organizations, activism, civic engagement and political impact.
Publisher Routledge, 2010
ISBN 0415801818, 9780415801812
328 pages
Amy Sun: Jalalabad Fab Lab, Afghanistan: Annual Report (2009)
Filed under report | Tags: · afghanistan, community, digital fabrication, engineering, fab lab, wireless networks
In May 2008 a Fab Lab was installed in the village of Bagrami near Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan with funding from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. This fab lab is a continuation of a program started in 2002 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). Currently there are nearly 40 such labs in 11 countries interconnected by internet and broadband videoconference.
The goal of the Jalalabad Fab Lab was to investigate post-war and disaster recovery applications of digital fabrication to see how communities might benefit from access to on-demand, local, custom production capabilities rather than relying on long, slow, and expensive supply chains. The Jalalabad lab anticipated special emphasis on health care needs that require on-site customization for individuals.
We have established a fab lab that has become a community resource. After 8 months this resource show positive signs of becoming self-sustaining. There are community members that are learning basic economic and business principles by creating product in the lab for sale in local markets. In this informal setting, through hands-on projects and peer-to-peer learning structure, people are gaining technical knowledge and experience using state-of-the-art digital fabrication tools. This experience stimulates motivation to learn more deeply about science, math and engineering and develop skills that are valued around the world. Additionally we have established educational infrastructure that extend learning beyond what a fab lab can teach. We have also created a wireless network throughout the community that gives access to the internet, for free, opening up the vast knowldege resources that the internet offers, and providing a gateway to the rest of the world.
Fielding a fab lab in Jalalabad has shown that prototyping tools for digital fabrication can function in a post-war, community-stressed setting like Afghanistan and have significant, immediate applications. We’ve identified applications in Information Communications Technology (ICT), civil engineering, and first line health care that can benefit enormously from the capabilities in a fab lab.
Report written for National Science Foundation, April 2009
Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology